


Subspace Entropy

by 11thDoctor



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Daleks - Freeform, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-15 23:31:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7243249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/11thDoctor/pseuds/11thDoctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This series begins with the Tenth Doctor.</p></blockquote>





	1. Ivan

  It is 2 in the afternoon. The store is crowded, filled with late Christmas shoppers. The loud noises of everyone scurrying surrounds Ivan as he is restocking the shelves with the toy cars. He carefully scans each package and makes sure the price is up to date and matches with the price that is displayed. He sorts out through the toys trying to restore the organization of the shelves the shoppers keep disturbing. "They can't bother to put things back in it's place. I know it's Christmas Eve but still not that hard to put things back in it's place." Ivan begins to rant to himself. One of his co-workers passes by him as he's ranting.

  "Dude, Ivan. If you think this is bad, wait until you see poor Rachel at the costumer service. She is getting blasted with complaints about cashiers not matching prices to other stores and what not." His co-worker started to help Ivan for a bit as they talked. He put the boxes toy cars back on the shelve. "

  "I feel for her. I can only imagine the kind of customers she is dealing with right now.."

   "Excuse me, sir?" A man walks up to Ivan and grabs a box containing a blue toy car and waves it in his face. "On your store flyer, this remote toy car was advertised at 39.99 with a 20% off discount. Why is it that this is 50.99 and there is no discount?" The man gives a fiery glare to Ivan as if he was about to beat him.

  "Sir. Do you have the flyer?" Ivan asks him politely as he watches the man take out the crumpled out flyer from his pocket and throw it at his face. "Sir, this is a different model from the one you are holding."

  "No it's not."

   "Yes. Yes it is. See, the one on the flyer can go on land and water. The one you are holding cannot." Ivan points out to the model number on the box the guy is holding while his co-worker starts to quietly side step away.

   "No. It's the same thing. Are you a moron? Seriously, what you couldn't make it to.."

    Ivan starts to daydream and imagining he's at his apartment binge watching Soul Eater and playing Kingdom Hearts on his Playstation 3. The angry costumer continues to shout at Ivan but he is too deep into his fantasy that none of the words the man is shouting makes his way through Ivan's mind.

    The man throws the box at Ivan and it hits him from the side of the face, "Forget this. I'm going to another store. Thanks for nothing. Merry fucking Christmas." The man storms off and Ivan's fantasy is broken. He watches as the man walks away from the isle and goes past the sliding doors and exits the store. The sound of the automatic doors gives Ivan relief that the angry man is gone.

     "Jack ass." Ivan quietly whispers to him as he heads off to the break room.  His shift is over and goes to pick up his belongings in his locker. 

      "Ivan, you got a second?" His supervisor, Troy walks into the break room. "I want to talk to you in my office."

      "Okay." Ivan goes to get his time card to clock out. He then grabs his backpack from his locker and walks to Troy's office. The door was open and he was sitting in his chair waiting for him.

      "Take a seat." Troy motions to Ivan to sit down. "Ivan, there is no easy way of saying this but.

      "Oh lovely." The sound of melancholy from Ivan's voice assures him he knows exactly was this meeting was about.

     "I'm really sorry, Ivan. This is of no fault of your own. The company is doing terrible and layoffs are happening. And with great misfortune, the company has decided to start layoffs in your division. You have your 2 weeks notice." Troy looks at Ivan with great sadness. The night before Christmas and he's having to lay off an excellent employee who did nothing ill towards him or anyone working in the store.

    "You know I'm in a government welfare housing program right? If I don't end up making my share of the payments they will leave me on my on with no help." Ivan gets up from his chair hoping Troy would find a way to spare him.

    "I'm sorry Ivan, truly. My hands are tied with this one. Isn't there anyone that could help you?"

     "I lived in group homes my whole life. Given up at birth by my parents. Once you turn 18, they just send you off to fend for your own. There is no one boss. No one." Ivan's voice started to sound as if he was going to burst in tears. "It's just me. You can't change me to another position or just cut my pay? Anything?"

    "I'm sorry Ivan. If you'll excuse me, I have to attend to meetings soon." Troy walks away leaving the door open so Ivan can leave when he's ready.

     Ivan picks up his backpack from the floor and walks away. He heads out the store exit.

     "See you later, Ivan." Rachel is being flooded with complaints but is still able to give our a friendly goodbye to Ivan as she desperately tries to deal with the Christmas frenzy.

    Ivan waves goodbye to Rachel and walks out the store. He looks around for a bit looking at the terrible state the parking lot is in. Lots of drivers are honking their horns at each other. Lots of shopping carts were left alone and gathered in bunches at the corner of the parking lot exits. He's glad that none of this will he his problem anymore.

     After a long bus ride home, Ivan goes to his bedroom and drops onto his bed. He lays there just thinking in silence. he is too depressed to watch anything on TV or play any of his games. He just sits there and stares at the ceiling. He is fighting off the tears that want to escape from his eyes but instead closes his eyes and tries to fall asleep. The noise of the traffic from the outside keeps Ivan awake. The loud trucks passing by shake the room a bit. He can hear the other tenants in from the walls fighting. His apartment was small. It only had one room and one bath. The kitchen was clean without a spec of dust. Ivan eats out most of the time and spends his time cleaning when he gets bored. 

        Ivan decides to make himself some food and walks over to the kitchen. He opens the refrigerator and a cold wave of air escapes as he opens it. It's 90 degrees outside and Ivan finds relieve from it. As he starts to get the food ready to cook, someone starts to rapidly knock on his door.

     "Ivan, are you in there? I need to talk to you." The land lord Jed was outside waiting for Ivan to open up. He continues to knock on the door hoping it would fall down.

    "Coming" Ivan was already irritated because of Jed's presence. He has a reputation with the other tenants. 

     Ivan walks to the door dropping everything he was doing and reaches out for the door knob. Jed hasn't calmed down and continues with his ruckus. The walls were vibrating from Jed's strength being pressed on the door. Ivan opens the door and Jed barges in pushing Ivan out of the way. He's pushed into the side of the room and hits the wall as he falls down. Jed slams the door behind him. "I got noise complaints about you."

"Noise complains? You must have the wrong guy. I don't have friends or family so how the hell am I suppose to make loud noise all on my own?" Ivan's voice had an aggressive tone to it. He does nothing but read books and on the occasion play some games but all in silence. He doesn't even sing out loud just keeps to himself. Jed's gone delusional and Ivan is under too much stress to find any humor in it.

   "No. I hear you throw parties late at night and bring outsiders to stay with you too." Jed was tipsy. He isn't able to walk straight. The drunkard must have mistaken Ivan for someone else in his gluttony for beer. His breathe reeked of alcohol and his intelligence was trivial. He knew nothing about what was going on.

    "Wow, you're drunk at 4 P.M. on Christmas Eve. Cool, you're cool. Hey you know why don't you go yell and harass someone else like that jerk Mike from the 2nd floor? There was a smirk painted on Ivan's face. He begins to mess with Jed not realizing he is doing it. 

     "That's it. You're on your 30 days notice. Good riddance you twat. " Jed pushes him out of his way and walks out the door slamming the door behind him.  

    "That's cool. Not like I have a job to pay for this shit hole anyways." Jed must of been able to hear him through the door since he looked the window just to flip Ivan off. 

 Ivan lost his appetite from all the anger so he goes back to room to lay on his bed. He closes his eyes and imagines he's in a better world trying to ignore all of his problems hoping they will go away on their own.

   

   


	2. The Doctor's call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This series begins with the Tenth Doctor.

  Deep in space, the TARDIS looms in the infinite of darkness and the divinity of the cosmos. The colors of the nebulae go without end. Surrounded by beauty the Doctor stays in the TARDIS and consults himself as his sadness deepens in his heart.  He  sits by the console of the TARDIS thinking about his best friend he left behind, Donna Noble. The lonely man in his box drifts into space not knowing what to do next. "Looks like it's just us." The TARDIS begins to shake aggressively and the sound of the TARDIS materializing filled the Doctor's ear. "Oi, what's gotten into you? Where are you going?" The Doctor yells out to the TARDIS and as they begin their travel through the time vortex. The TARDIS has never acted like this before that all the shaking knocks the Doctor off his feet and falls on the ground.

        "Oh, that is going to leave a mark." The TARDIS completes it's travel through the vortex and remains still. "What was that all about?" The Doctor walks over to the small TV screen mounted at the side of the console and looks at it.

         "Earth? You brought us back here to Earth, why?" The Doctor runs out the TARDIS and is welcomed by a blinding ray of sunlight and high temperature. He sticks his tongue out and licks the air around him tasting it in his mouth. The sounds of him swirling the inside of his mouth was loud. It's taking him a while before he realizes where he landed, "Ah, California. The Golden State, but what's so special about this place. Welllllll, I guess there is Disneyland but other than that."

       He walks around enjoying the sites of the skyscrapers. He finds himself in the heart of Los Angeles. The traffic is overflowing, the road appears to be gridlocked and could be easily mistaken for a parking lot if it wasn't for the traffic lights. The air is filled with smog and the blistering sun beats down on him. The giant coat he is wearing is only making things worse for the Doctor, "I won't be needing this while I'm here." The Doctor opens the TARDIS door and throws his coat inside and leaves it on the banister. He shuts the door and locks it with his key. It makes a sound that imitates a car alarm.

  "Right then. Allons-Y." The view of the skyscrapers of L.A. dominate his eye sight. He sees many warehouses on every block. His journey takes him to a bus station where a poster for a mid day concert at the Hollywood bowl catches his attention. He decides to go to it. The bus that can take him there drives to it's stop and he quickly runs into it. Having no money on him, the Doctor shows the bus driver his psych paper as he walks in, "John Smith, bus inspector." He smiles at the bus driver. The driver has a funny look on his face as he looks into the Doctors paper.

     "Okay. Get in." The bus driver motions with his hand for the Doctor to take his seat.

      "Thank you." The Doctor takes his seat and waits for the bus driver to start driving. Other people fill in the seats in crowds. The Doctor just sits with a smile looking out into the window. His heart still saddened by Donna's leave but he is determined to move on his life. It's what she would have wanted. 

      The bus starts moving and he is being jerked around a bit in his seat, "Oi."

      "Sorry." the bus driver yelled out to everyone.

       The bus starts it's journey to the Hollywood bowl. On the way there, the Doctor looks out at all the scenery L.A. has to offer. Giant skyscrapers continue to be in his site. He passes by the Hollywood sign and sees the Griffith Observatory on top of its grassy hills. "Marvelous." He quietly says to himself. Along the way, the bus passes by apartment complexes and trouble.

      Fire trucks and ambulances cut off the bus and sirens fill the air with their intrusive noise. Everyone looks out the window to their right and watch as one of the buildings is in a fiery inferno. Black smoke fills the air and covers the sky in darkness. Many people are running around screaming and a frenzy panic spreads throughout everyone around.

      The Doctor's instincts kick in and yells to the bus driver, "Stop the bus!"

      "Why?" The bus driver yells to him.

      "JUST DO IT!" The Doctor gets out of his seat and runs to the door. The bus driver lets him out but leaves without him. He runs towards the fire which is two blocks away. With all his strength the Doctor rushes over there.

       "Someone help!" People begin screaming as ambulances and fire trucks pulled in.

    Just as the Doctor suspected, this is no ordinary fire. Something is making it move and it appears something is traveling through the flames. A man with a bald head and stubble starts yelling out "He did it I know he did. That crazy boy!"

         "What boy? Who are you talking about? And who are you?" The Doctor begins to question the people around him.

       "I'm the landlord of this complex and the moron who started the fire is a stupid boy named Ivan." Jed starts to look around to see if Ivan was in the crowd.

     One of the elder tenants started crying in horror, "Ivan is still in his apartment. He isn't out here." To everyone's horror, they remained silent except the Doctor.

       "Why do you think he started this? Why would a boy start a fire?" His questions started to come out in rapid fire. He wanted to get to the bottom of things but the fire progresses into a fiery chaos.

    "He said he saw some weird creature late at night sparking like fireflies. The boys insane!" Jed's anger appears to make the fire worse and worse.

     "He's sick. He isn't insane. The poor boy is long dead by now, have some decency." The old woman yells out to Jed. 

     "No he's not." The Doctor runs into the fiery inferno. "What floor does he live in?" 

  "Third floor, room 32A." The old woman replies.

      The Doctor takes out a rag from his pocket and covers his mouth and nose with it. He runs into the entrance of the complex and is greeted by a raging ball of fire. The sprinklers didn't appear to be broken and nothing was keeping this fire at bay. He makes his way to the stairs and starts an ascension to raging fires above. 

    

          


	3. Fires of Whisps

     The fire rages on and the Doctor quickly runs to the third floor. This was no ordinary fire and the Doctor's instincts hit the bull's eye. The Doctor takes out his screwdriver from his right pocket and begins to use it while running towards the stairs. The sounds emitting from the screwdriver frightened the alien creatures causing the inferno. The fires push away as the Doctor increases the output of the screwdriver. The staircase was soon in his sights and he makes his way through the stairs. The fire has progressed and pieces of the building come crashing down. Little hunks of wood falls and smoke fills the Doctor's nose. The rag he was using can no longer protect him any further. 

        The whisps start to retaliate against the Doctor. These little plum sized fireball creatures launch themselves at the Doctor. One misses it's aim at the Doctor's hand. "Oh no you don't!" The sounds of the screwdriver drive them insane. The Doctor rushes step by step and makes it to the second floor, "One more." The whisps start another wave of attacks this time attacking in swarms. "Blimey!" One manages to singe the Doctor's right hand. He holds on tight to the screwdriver increasing its potency to maximum output. "Why aren't the sprinklers working?!" A fire rages on but the sprinklers haven't gone off.  Enraged by the interference, the Whisps change tactics and begin to call forth much larger whisps shaped like serpents begin crawling up against the walls   
  


       "Foresee the coming, the order falls." The Doctor hears a voice in his mind. 

     "Oh that's it. The whisps must be jamming the interference of the sprinkler system with a anti -matter matrix loophole cutting the detection of Carbon Monoxide." The Doctor adjusts the screwdriver to match the frequency the Whisps are using to cancel their signal out. "Let there be rain!" With one click, the screwdriver emits a new sound that reaches out throughout the whole building. The sprinklers turn on and the fires begin to die down. The water for the sprinklers drip down on his face wetting his hair and soaking through his clothes.  Enraged by his actions, the whisps give out one final retaliation against him. They start joining together to form a giant fire serpent twice the size of a man. They charge but they go past the Doctor. They go to the stairs and make their way up to the third floor, "Oh no. Please don't tell me.."

          The Doctor gives chase and follows behind the massive fire serpent. Desperation and anxiety rush through the Doctor's blood and he rushes over step by step. He finally reaches the third floor and makes his way to find Ivan's room. '301A, 302A, 31A, " The Doctor keeps running and reads the apartment numbers. 32A is just around the corner. He makes his way through the long corridors and sees the room.  He runs with his screwdriver still in his hand. The whisps stand still there in front of Ivan's room. They look directly into the Doctor's eye. They start talking to him through psychic abilities, "You not know of this boy, leave us be Doctor and we will spare everyone left in this building."To the Doctor's horror, people were still trying to escape.

       "I can't do that. Sacrifice one life for others. I'm going to do this." He walks up to the fiery serpent with an angry look on his face. "I'm going to go in there, save the boy then I'm going to save everyone still in this building and just to top it off, I'll send you back to your planet. And you will never ever come back here again. I enact the Shadow Proclamation. This is your only warning, move aside or I will make you!"

       The whisps do not take kindly to the Doctor's tone. The launch at him and a fire ball rushes towards him. Standing firm the Doctor reaches out with his screwdriver and makes one final adjustment to it. The screech coming from the screwdriver drives the giant whisps insane. The fires around it start to die out and it frantically throws itself around in the corridors. The Doctor is infusing the sonic screwdriver in the psychic connection of the whisps, driving their minds out with the loud screeches of the driver. 

       "Take the fire with you, and go." His glare meets directly into the serpents eyes. With great discontent, the whisps yield to the Doctor and all of them launch themselves out of the building and gather in a light. A small spaceship appears collecting the whisps. As the whisps begin to leave, the fire dissipates. The fire on the third floor finally dies out and the rest of the building was freed from the fiery inferno. One last whisps stood in front of the Doctor.

      "What happens next is on you, Doctor." The last words of the whisps etches their way into the Doctor's mind. He watches as the finally whisps joins it's kind and they all fly off into space.  

     He turns off the screwdriver to change its settings. He runs over to the door and uses it to open the door to Ivan's room. He quickly throws the door open and sees Ivan's room completely intact by the fire. 

    He sees Ivan collapsed on the ground, unconscious. "Oh no. No no no no no no no." The Doctor rushes over to his side, scanning him with his screwdriver trying to find a cause for his current state. In Ivan's hand, he sees a bottle of sleeping pills and on his other hand a bottle of his anti-depressants. The Doctor picks up Ivan and calls the TARDIS over to him. The materialization sound starts to fill the room. The TARDIS arrives in the middle of Ivan's living room and the Doctor walks in holding him in his arms.

 


	4. You and Me. Time and Space.

   The Doctor brings in Ivan and gently puts him on the ground. He runs over to the console of the TARDIS and takes out a strange machine. It starts beeping loud and he takes out his screwdriver. With the items in his hand he kneels down to Ivan and uses it on him. The instruments scan his body and for a few seconds he moves a little. The Doctor looks over at the small screen on his console that is monitoring his vitals. From the scan he can see the condition Ivan is in. "Good." A sigh of relieve escapes the Doctor's breathe and gently leans on the console. He waits for Ivan to wake up. He is no longer in danger.

      An hour has passed since the Doctor treated Ivan for his over dosage. He quietly waits for him to regain conscious. The Doctor decides to explore Ivan's room to see what the whisps wanted with him. Out the TARDIS door he goes and enters the living room. The room was intact from the fire. Everything was in its place. There was a coffee table in front of the couch. On the table there was several notebooks. He walks over to it and picks one up at random. He slowly opens the notebook as his curiosity of its context surge throughout his mind. To the Doctor's surprise, the notebook was filled with drawings. Page by page it contained animals Ivan has sketched. The Doctor continues to flip through the pages, impressed by Ivan's artistic skills. He drops the notebook gently and continues to look around. He goes over to the kitchen. The kitchen was clean. No signs of any cooking were present. The only food around was the to go bags of several fast food places. 

       In the kitchen counter lays a book. it catches the Doctor's gaze and he walks over to it.  The book has a black cover with golden designs around it. It has no title or any writing on the cover. He reaches out for it but accidentally slides it off the counter and it falls open. He kneels down to pick it up but sees it's contexts has fallen open. Star maps were inside of the book. Many pictures of stars and celestial objects were also inside the book. There were a few notes about trivial facts about these celestial bodies. He picks it up and turns the pages at random. On the next page he flips over to, he sees a piece of paper stuck into the page. He is startled, the picture drawn as a picture of a Dalek. The Doctor came looking for answers about as to who Ivan is only to get more questions in return. He walks over to his bedroom. The bed was made; no signs of Ivan sleeping was evident. He hears the sounds of doors opening and rushes back into the living room.

       Ivan walks out of the TARDIS as he groans and stumbles as he walks. His equilibrium is off and his walking was like that of some toddlers desperately seeking to walk in balance. "What the hell, what happened?" 

       "Hey, hey, hey take it easy now." The Doctor rushes over to Ivan and holds him in his arms. He walks him over to the couch and sets him down gently. The Doctor grabs a cushion and sets it behind Ivan's head for support, "You're alright now. Those things won't be coming back for you." He gives Ivan a warm welcoming smile and a rush of happiness comes to the Doctor.

     "Who the hell are you?" Ivan was touching his forehead with his hand. He could feel the pain dance around in his head and tried to overcome with pain with his sheer will.

      "I'm the Doctor." he replied.

      "Doctor Who? Your name?" Ivan started to sit up and started to regain more of his conscious even though he was still out of it. 

      "Just the Doctor." He smiles as he walks into the kitchen. He goes to the fridge and opens it. He takes out a bottle of water and hands it over to Ivan, "Here, you need to re-hydrate."

      "Thanks." Ivan said sarcastically as he grabs the bottle from the Doctor's hand. He slowly opens it up due to his weakened body and slowly drinks the water.  

      "Are you alright? I came in here and saw you had bottles of medication in your hand.. and I thought..."

     "Whoa whoa, hold the phone there! I accidentally mixed medications okay. All of them had powerful drowsy side effects. I never thought it had such a potency so I just sort of... didn't think it through that well. But I'm not suicidal okay!" Ivan starts yelling at the Doctor completely offended by his assumptions. He closes the bottle of water and puts it on the table. "What are you doing in my apartment anyways, I should call the cops on you."

     "Your apartment complex caught on fire. I rushed over here because... I felt something calling me here. And other people who evacuated said you were still here. So I came here to save you." He walks over to the kitchen to grab a chair. The chair was wooden and had a coarse feeling to it. He carries it over and sits next to Ivan. He folds his hands and rests his chin under them as he continues his conversation with Ivan. "You are lucky the fire didn't hurt you. Welllllllll, the whisps were protecting you. They needed you for something and they needed you alive. So, they must have created the fires around you."

     "Fire? Yeah, well I got news for you. You must be delusional because there is no..." Ivan quickly gets up from the couch and walks over to the door and exists his apartment. The first thing he notices is the scorched walls around him. The sirens of the fire trucks and ambulances plagued his hearing. The hallway was slipper, flooded by the waters from the sprinklers. A piercing wave of adrenaline flows into Ivan and paralyzes him. The Doctor walks over to him, "You were saying."

   'WHAT THE FUCK." Ivan is flabbergasted. The place was completely wrecked from the fire. He looks over to the window and sees the crowds of people gathering around in their gossiping frenzy. In the crowd, Jed stands out from everyone else and he meets his eyes in a lock. Even from high up on Ivan's floor, he could hear Jed yelling.

   "Look, It's Ivan. See, I bet he really did start this fire." His yelling was still muffled from the air but Ivan didn't have to have super hearing to know what he was saying.

   "Oh great. That jack ass is going to think I started the fire." Ivan slowly walks back to his apartment and drops himself on the couch face down.

   “We could explain to him aliens were the cause of this.” The Doctor walks over to the TARDIS and goes inside. He leaves the door open.

    “Please, he doesn’t even listen to reason. How am I supposed to convince that drunkard jack ass that..” A loud noise fills the room. The walls begin to vibrate and the sounds of the kitchen utensils rocking in the cabinets were heard. Ivan runs outside and looks out the window again. He sees the whisps and their spaceship circle around the building one last time. Everyone outside was able to see it. Jed looks at it with astonishment. The ship stays still for a few seconds then flies off into space. “Okay then. I guess that settles that.”

Ivan walks back in and shuts the door behind him. The TARDIS was standing in the middle of his living room. A giant blue police telephone box filled his eyesight with curiosity and questions. He looks over to the Doctor in the TARDIS and walks in slowly, “Wait, I was in there? You took me inside? What the?!” He walks in the TARDIS and notices how incredibly large it is inside. He then procides to walk outside and looks at it from the outside. “It’s bigger on the inside.” Ivan was still groggy from the medication overdose and didn’t realize he was ever inside the TARDIS.

“So I’ve been told.” The Doctor replied to him. He was fiddling with the console of the TARDIS.

  “Wait, what was I doing in there? What did you do to me?” Ivan runs up to the Doctor and starts asking him questions. Very intrusive questions. “Who are you exactly? What person just names themselves, the Doctor. Or did you parents just really want to ruin your life and give you a stupid name? And ... WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!” He circles around the Doctor staring at him. The Doctor feels a bit uncomfortable by his actions but understands his feelings.

  “I saved you.” He smiles over to Ivan. “I used a teleporter combined with my, screwdriver” He takes out his screwdriver and turns it out making it flash and sets off a soft sonic noise coming from it hoping to amuse Ivan. Ivan glares at him and his nostrils flare. He was far from amused by his actions. “I used the teleporter and miniaturized its effect and well, essentially pumped your stomach from all those pills. Then you just slept in here.” He tilts his head as he answers the questions Ivan keeps flooding him with.

“Like I said before, I’m the Doctor. I’m an alien. From another planet. And this is my space ship, the TARDIS. Stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.”

  Ivan looks over to the Doctor and starts to pace around the TARDIs trying to take in everything that has happened. The TARDIS is filled with noises from all the instruments inside of it. The space dichotomy from inside and the outside continue to baffle him. He watches the Doctor look at him in an observant and curious manner. Ivan walks over to the door and stops. “Why did you save me?” He asks the Doctor.

“Because you’re special. And because it is what I do. Save people. Well, save all beings of life. And I dunno. To be honest I also feel like I was being drawn to you. Like we were meant to be together.” The Doctor walks over to Ivan and puts his hand on his shoulder. Ivan turns his head to look back at the Doctor’s hand and starts to walk away.

“Well. Thanks I guess. But you can go now. Not like I expect anything.”

“Did I tell you this can go back in time. Or forward.” The Doctor tries to persuade Ivan to come with him.

A smile manages to break through Ivan’s face even though his sadness has taken over his entire body. “Prove it.” He turns back and walks face to face with him.

  “Right. Molte Bene.” The Doctor runs over to the TARDIS and begins to pull on lowers on the console of the TARDIS. The place starts shaking rapidly and Ivan turns back to see the doors close by themselves. He begins to get nervous as the place continues to shake rapidly and his ears filled with a strange humming sound.

“What is this? I can’t even.” Ivan is knocked off his feet and falls onto the ground. The TARDIS stops shaking and the Doctor reaches his hand out to Ivan. “Come with me.”

  “Beyond the door is a past version of you. I linked a psychic connection between you and the TARIDS. To take you back to a time you enjoyed the most. Now, let’s go see, shall we? “ Ivan grabs his hand and helps him get up. Ivan dusts himself off and slowly walks to the door.

  Ivan is hesitant to walk out the TARDIS. He stands in front of the door with one hand pressing against its cold surface. He takes in a huge breath, pushes the door opens and walks out. A blinding light fills Ivan’s eyes for a second. He tries to cover the light with his hands but fails to. He continues to walk out the TARDIS. The light finally vanishes and Ivan starts to feel a mix of emotions.

  In the distance, Ivan can see a past version of himself playing in the snow with another kid. Snow falls from the sky and paints the area like a  scene in a winter style painting. Pine trees filled the air with a fresh scent and the clouds above decorated the sky with white fluffs. It was freezing. Ivan starts to shiver. His body is completely exposed to the frigid piercing wind that begins to howl softly towards him. The nostalgia begins to get to him. His eyes begin to fill with water and his nose starts to get congested. He stands still in sadness.

“So, where are me?” the Doctor asks him as he stands behind Ivan examining the area around him.

“Orphanage. That’s Taylor.” Ivan’s voice started to disappear. He was choking in his emotions.

“Friend of yours?” he asks him. The Doctor keeps looking at Ivan with pity.

  “Yeah. He was. He died shortly after this day. Got really sick. After he died I had no friends. People never really liked me. No family ever wanted to adopt me. No, instead I was taken into foster homes one by one but always sent back.” Ivan turns his back and walks back into the TARDIS. He isn’t able to take any more of this trip to the past. At the consol of the TARID, Ivan leans on the railing there and looks sad into the ground.

  “No friends at the homes. Or school. I was literally hated by everyone. Once I turned 18, legally they weren’t obligated to keep me in foster homes anymore. So they set me up in this housing welfare program. But that’s going to end soon. I’m going to be let go in a few days.”

“So is that why you tried to…” The Doctor didn’t have the heart to finish the sentence.

“I guess. What do I have to live for?” He never looks up to the Doctor as he talked. He only looked into the ground.

“Why don’t you come with me?” The Doctor walks over to Ivan and kneels down to look at in the eye.

“Why?” Ivan turns away from the Doctor having no trust or faith in him.

“Well, travel through time. The cosmos too. And well I dunno. Be my friend? Maybe?” his words start to break through Ivan’s bubble of depression and self-doubt.

“For how long?” Ivan asks him. He gets up and walks over to him.

“As long as you want.” He answers him.

“Rest of my life?” Ivan asks him with a soft tone.

“Of course.” The Doctor replies.

“Well, I GUESS if you really want me to tag alone. I could. Can you take me back to my place? There are some things I want to take with me?”

The Doctor nods and begins to activates switches on the console. The TARDIS starts to shake and make the humming noise again. This time, Ivan was able to keep a sturdy stance and wasn’t thrown off his feet.

  The TARDIS stops and the Doctor points with his head to the door. Ivan runs out. They were back in his living room. He runs into his room to grab his backpack and grabs a fill papers on the table the Doctor had previously been looking through. He grabs a few of his notebooks and shoves them inside the back pack.

The door to the apartment burst open. It was Jed. He angrily walks into the room accusing Ivan of starting the fire, “I knew you started this fire. Get over here I’m kicking your ass.”

“Oh look at that I have to go now, bye!” Ivan runs into the TARDIS and the door shuts behind him. It begins to materialize.

“Get back here you freak!” Jed shakes his fist at the disappearing TARDIS.

Inside the TARDIS, Ivan starts to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” The Doctor asks him.

“Oh it’s nothing.” He tosses his stuff to the ground and walks over to the Doctor.

“So, now what?” he asks him. "Where to?"

 The Doctor looks over to Ivan with a cheerily smile and pulls on a level on the console. The TARDIS starts to shake. A promise of a new life is given to Ivan. He happily accepts the offer of friendship given by the Doctor. He looks over to Ivan and tells him, “Anytime and anywhere. You and me. Time and Space.”  


	5. Carnival of doom

  The Doctor is sitting by the console reading results that are displayed on the small tv. He puts on his reading glasses and takes a closer look. “Hmmm, interesting.” He takes his glasses off and gets up. Ivan is sound asleep in his room. The Doctor walks in to see him in his gentle sleep. He is surprised to see Ivan smiling in his sleep. “Good. Goodnight Ivan.” The Doctor quietly walks out of his room and returns to the console. He begins to fidget with a few switches on it and pulls down on a lever. The TARDIS starts to shake around and make its usual materializing sound. The Doctor had Ivan’s room created to isolate any vibrating atoms to sound proof his room.  He wanted to make sure Ivan got a full night’s rest when he sleeps.

  “Well then. Where to start.” The Doctor takes out the Dalek drawing Ivan had and looks at it more carefully. The questions as to how Ivan knew what a Dalek puzzles him and is determined to find out once Ivan is awake.

“Hi.” A quiet voice came from behind the Doctor. Ivan woke up from his slumber and joins the Doctor by the console. His movement is slow as he is still a bit sleepy. His eyes were heavy and was yawning heavily.

“Oi, good morning. How are you?” The Doctor looks over at Ivan and smiles. He remains seated and continues to maneuver the TARDIs to his location.

“Good. I never slept like that in my entire life. That bed is so comfy.” Ivan is starting to overcome his sleepiness.

“Glad to hear it. Hungry?” The Doctor asks.

“Very. So like, you never explained how you got me a room in here.” Ivan asks The Doctor, curious about the nature of the inside of the TARDIS.

“WWEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. Let’s just space. I can make anything inside the TARDIS. Science. Yeahhhh Science.” The Doctor starts to play around with smaller switches on the console.

  “So you can manipulate the very matter and redesign any molecular structure so long as it’s inside of the TARDIS. Something like that?” Ivan looks over to the Doctor now fully awake and raring to go on the so called “adventures” the Doctor promised him.

  “Woooooow. Clever boy you are.” The Doctor lets out a huge smile and intrigued at Ivan’s intelligence. “I didn’t know you had a thing for science. Welllllllllll I saw your star maps but I just figured you liked looking at stars.” The Doctor gets up and walks over to Ivan. Curious and filled with energy The Doctor he is eager to show Ivan the location of their first stop.

  “Welllllllllllllll.” Ivan starts to playfully tease the Doctor of his quirks. “When no one wants to be your friend and you have no family you tend to get into hobbies and other stuff to distract yourself. My distraction was science.” Ivan tilts his head a bit to look at the Doctor in a playful tease, “But the law of conservation, you can’t just create matter…. Can you?”

“Why don’t we have breakfast shall we?” The Doctor quickly runs over to Ivan and covers his mouth. “Let’s just say Time Lord Science okay?”

Ivan nods in agreement. The Doctor removes his hand from Ivan’s mouth and walks away from him.

“Oh, by the way. What’s a Time Lord?” He asks.

“A high ranking Gallifrian. I’m from a planet called Gallifery, there Galllifriens are sent to the Academy. Once they graduated they get the title, Time Lord.” The Doctor continues to go on explaining to Ivan about Time Lords and his home world.

“Ah, that’s fascinating. So, where is this breakfast you promised?” Ivan’s hunger started to dominate his thoughts. All he could think of was pancakes.

“Right, shall well?” The Doctor walks over to the door and gestures with his hand for Ivan to follow him.

“Wait, I can’t go dressed like this!” Ivan runs back to his room to change. But remembers he didn’t bring any clothing with him. He was only in his shorts and shirt.

“Here.” The Doctor throws a small device at him. Ivan stumbles to catch it midair but manages to catch it.

“What is it?” There was a puzzled look on Ivan’s face and he starts to fondle it in his hands trying to figure out what it was.

“It’s a clothes making ray. Just think of what you want to wear, press on the button and it will appear… on your body… like that.” The Doctor snaps his fingers.

  “Ummmm. Okay? But I’d rather have actual clothes with me. So maybe we can go shopping or something.” Ivan uses the clothes ray the Doctor gave. He is a bit surprised to see an outfit appear on his body.  The machine clothed Ivan in a Black polo shirt with silver lining on the collar. Dark jeans covered his bottom half of his body and matched together with a pair of high top Converse. It was exactly his size. “ Whoa this is like magic.”

“No, it’s science but that’s pretty funny though. Magic.” The Doctor chuckles quietly to himself.

  Ivan proceeds to walk out the TARDIS door and slowly pulls the door open. He is expecting something marvelous. His eye sight is filled with a spectacular view. In the deep, with the stars decorating the background lies a giant station. There are spaceships flying around and noise of civilization can be heard from the station.

“Whoa!” Ivan is filled with glee and is paralyzed with excitement.

“It’s Orbital 10. A gathering of various inter stellar cultures, entertainment and food of course.”

“Basically, a carnival in space.” Ivan walks back into the TARDIS.

“I suppose you can see it like that.” The Doctor follows behind him and starts to materialize the TARDIS to Orbital 10. “Allonys-Y.”

“What?” Ivan asks.

The Doctor just smiles as he pilots the shaking TARDIS to the out of space carnival.

The TARDIS continues to shake for a few seconds and comes to a halt.

“We’re here.” The Doctor runs out the TARDIS and the sound of a crowd fills the TARDIS.

“Wait for me!” Ivan runs out chasing after the Doctor. He shuts the door behind him.

  There are many sights to take in it’s a bit overwhelming for Ivan. Stands filled with people and aliens selling food covered the floor he was in. Various entertainment was around the venues including karaoke. Giant TVs gathered in flocks around all displaying infomercials of Orbital 10. There are various types of life forms around the station. Ivan isn’t afraid of the foreign creatures around him. He was a bit relieved to see humans in the station with him.

“Ivan over here!” The Doctor shouts and waves at him from a distance.

“Coming!” Ivan runs towards the Doctor. He sees him with two plates in his hands and grasping 2 forks in between the plate on his left hand. The Doctor hands him a stack of pancakes.

“As promised. Here you go.” He gently places the plate of pancakes on Ivan’s hand and he retrieves it from him.

“Thanks.” Ivan grabs the fork the Doctor was wedging between his hand and the plate and starts eating.

  Ivan was never this excited about eating pancakes before. He never had anyone treat him for anything. He is in a happy place right now completely submerged in the pancakes covered with maple syrup. “Pancakes in space are great.”

“Oh yeah.” The Doctor talks with his mouth full. Ivan can’t help but laugh. “Oh come here you have to see this.” The Doctor walks along the busy path. Ivan follows behind him still snacking on the pancakes to say anything.

They both walk for a bit and come across a stage filled with people and aliens alike on a trivial contest show.

  An MC for the show starts to inform the crowd “Welcome all life forms to the 203 annual “Orbit Millionaire Questionnaire”. Today these 12 contestants will compete against each other in trivial facts. One by one they will tally points and at the end of each turn the one with the least points.” The MC walks over to the giant podium in front of the stage and presses the button. “Get EEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLIMINATED!” He presses a buzzer on the podium and a loud buzzer goes off exciting the crowd. Ivan was so caught up with the fun and his pancakes he didn’t even ask the Doctor what year they were in.

“Wait. 2003 Annual show. What year is this?” He finishes his pancakes and quickly walks over to the nearest trash can and throws the plate away.

“Oh it’s the year 3000.”

“Oh there was a song about the year 3000.” Ivan starts to remember some song he once heard on TV. “It was by the something brothers.”

“That’s lovely.” The Doctor was eager for the show to start. He was secretly into these game shows that were all about facts.

The MC starts talking to the crowd, “Okay life forms of various regions, let the game begin!”

The Doctor is filled with enthusiasm. There are no seats to watch the show so anyone who wants to watch this has to stand up. But it didn’t seem to bother Ivan or the Doctor.

The show got intense and was filled with contestants constantly fighting at each other for the prize money. Ivan thought that a fight was going to break out at one point but it didn’t. The game show lasted for about an hour.

“And the winner is, Rosko Dank from New New York city!!” The MC announces the winner.

“Marvelous. Wasn’t that just lovely, hey Ivan.” The Doctor turns around to Ivan. He appears to be spacing out, “Ivan?” He snaps his fingers at him.

* * *

 

  “Doctor, what is happening, Doctor?!” Ivan’s ears are flooded with the loud sirens. People and life forms around him are screaming. “Warning, solar flare approaching. All shield deflectors are down.” The same message was playing on loop on the intercoms. The place was filled with a panic frenzy. “Doctor. Doctor!!” Ivan runs for the Doctor but the windows behind him break and he is sucked out into space. “Doctor!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

 

* * *

 

  “Ivan, hey you okay?” Ivan snapped back into reality. He wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or if he was going nuts. Everything was back to normal at the station. It’s as if nothing happened. He was completely freaked out.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” He replies.

“You sure?” The Doctor places his hand on his forehead trying to see if he is physically okay.

“Yeah, I’m peachy. So what’s next?” Hoping to distract himself from whatever day nightmare he had, he was looking forward to whatever was next with the Doctor.

  “Ah, yes. You love star gazing right?” The Doctor asks him. Ivan nods a yes. “Well, how about star gazing in a different quadrant of space. New constellations. New celestial objects to look at. There’s this really amazing Nebulae not to far from here. Wellllllllll 3 million light years away but that’s nothing for a high tech future wuture telescope, right?” The Doctor makes silly puns to rhyme the words out.  “This part of the galaxy has the largest and most powerful telescope is just above this floor. So, what do you say?” The Doctor looks down to look at Ivan. The Doctor can’t stop smiling. He is happy to share the love of the stars with Ivan.

“Let’s!” Ivan starts to run from the Doctor. He is heading towards the opposite direction of the telescope.

“Ivan.” The Doctor turns around to face him.

“Yes Doctor?” Ivan stops mid run and turns his head to look back at him.

“Its… It’s the other way.” The Doctor points in the right direction with his right finger, puts his hands in his suits pocket and walks away. Ivan follows him. They walk up the stairs for a bit in silence. Neither one of them engaged in any form of conversation. Ivan was still upset about that horrible day dream he had. He didn’t want to let that ruin what he was going to do next.

  “Here we are.” The Doctor and Ivan finish walking up the stairs. They arrive in this dome shaped room on top of the carnival that was downstairs.  The room is cold. Ivan starts to shiver. The giant telescope stood in the middle of the room with computers at the side and a small panel by the telescope. “Have a look.” The Doctor walks over to the telescope and peers into it before letting Ivan see it. Ivan slowly walks to the eyepiece of the telescope while admiring the architect and designs of the dome shaped room. The walls were decorated with star shaped drawings. There were shelves filled with many books all lined up against the room in a perfect circular flow to match the room.

  The Doctor moves so Ivan can see through it. What he sees astonishes him and lights up his soul. Through the telescope, Ivan saw so many stars. There were gas clouds drifting into space, their colors painted the dark space in colorful brilliance. “Wow.” The only thing Ivan was able to say escaped his lips. He notices a star in the background. It appears to be dull losing its luster. “That star there, are we far away from it. Or is the telescope not working right it looks so dull.” Ivan steps out of the way so the Doctor can look at the star he was talking about.

The Doctor slowly looks into the eye piece and gazes at the star Ivan was talking about, “No, everything is fine. “Ah. I can see why you think that. But no, that star is a FVI Star.”

“The Hertzsprung-Russel model.” Ivan thinks out loud to himself. “But that means………… it’s dying…” He starts talking in a soft voice.  Ivan starts to walk away from the telescope feeling completely depressed.

“Yeah.’ The Doctor follows Ivan. He puts his hand on his shoulder. Ivan looks down and doesn’t look back up at the Doctor. The Doctor can feel the sadness in his heart. It takes lonely to know lonely. And sadness to understand sadness.

  “But you want to know something about dying stars. “The Doctor grabs Ivan by the hand and walks him over back to the telescope. He looks through it as he talks, “The materials the stars once had float into space. Those gas clouds meet other gas clouds. Soon they attract to each other and they collapse on their own gravity.” The Doctor changes the position of the telescope with the small computer panel by the eyepiece. He steps back and waits for Ivan to look into it.

  Ivan looks through it and sees a small glowing ball of light surrounded by gasses and other objects. “Soon, a proto star will take form and begin a new cycle. Maybe even creating its own system filled with planets and moons. This system could possibly hold life, a brand new world.” Ivan steps back from the telescope filled with hope. He was still sad but was moved by the Doctor’s words. It was a bitter-sweet moment for him. “The end doesn’t have to be the end.” The Doctor continues to cheer up Ivan.  
“Doctor, why do you care so much for me?”

“Because you’re special Ivan. Just like the billions and billions of stars out there in space, there are none like you.” The Doctor grabs Ivan by both of his shoulders and looks him in the eye.

“I’m not a star.” His head turns away from the Doctor.

  “Of course you are. Because once upon a time, the star you call the Sun was once part of those gas clouds you just saw. And it was a proto star. And that proto star expanded and blew into the reaches of space creating the earth.  You see Ivan, everything inside of you, inside of me was once inside stars. We are stars!” The Doctor smiles and waits for Ivan to respond.

He lifts his formerly sad face up and looks into the Doctor’s eyes. “I can see the star dust in your eyes Doctor.” Ivan starts to smile and laugh. The Doctor joins him and starts to laugh along with him.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” The Doctor replies.

“Hey, are we in a quadrant filled with dying stars?” Ivan asks him with his day nightmare in mind.

“Yeah, why?”

“How are we safe from.. you know.. solar flares that shoot out into space causing all sorts of harm.”

“OH THAT. YES. The station has shields that can block out flares and other hazards, like in coming meteor showers.” The Doctor tries to assure Ivan that he is safe with him.

“Right. Shields that work.” He says quietly to himself. Before he could ask the Doctor another question, the whole station begins to shake.

“what’s that?” Ivan began to panic.

“Don’t worry just some turbulence is all.” The Doctor keeps looking through the telescope. “Fascinating. A whole new planetary nebula.”

  Ivan starts to pace back and forth. He wasn’t sure if he should tell the Doctor about his day nightmare.  Was the dream just some odd hallucination or did he glimpse into the future. This question pounds in his head and his anxiety grows.

“Shouldn’t we go see if everything is okay?” Ivan stops pacing and starts to bite his thumb. Fear starts to replace the once cheerful and hopeful Ivan that stood there not too long ago.

“Would you feel better if I went to the cock pit of the station…”

“Yes please.” Ivan cut off the Doctor before he could finish talking. He looks at the Doctor with a worried expression as the station experiences more turbulence.

  “Alrighty then. Off we go.” They both start walking back down the stairs and head off to the cock pit of the station.  The turbulence gets worse with each step they take. Ivan starts fearing the worst. He must have indeed seen the future.

They reach the floor where the food and fun was. Every life form begins to question the stability of the station. Ivan overheard someone talking about wanting to leave asap.

  “Attention all life forms. We are experiencing a wave solar storms. Some turbulence is to be expected but rest assured we are all safe in the station. Please continue with your activities.” A worker for the station came out to inform people of the current state of the station. Ivan didn’t buy into what he was saying.

  The Doctor walks up to the worker and show shim a piece of paper. “Yes, Ah Hello. Department of Health and Safety.” He flashes the paper quickly in front of the worker. “I’m going to need to see the control room. For inspection.” He puts the paper back in his pocket and looks firmly into the worker’s eye.

“Uhhhh. Yes, sir. Right this way.” The worker leads the Doctor and Ivan to the control. The station continues to shake. The worker leads them to a shiny metal door and opens it with a key card.

“What about overriding the system and using the backup generators to boost the efficiency of the deflectors?” An operator frantically operates with the panels and converses with the other operators.

“As you can see we have everything under control...”

“Warning. Main deflectors down. Backup generators failed to load.”

This message started to play on repeat in the room. The operators were frantically trying to fix the issue.

“Who’s he?” One of the operators asked the guy that let Ivan and the Doctor in.

“I’m the Doctor. Health and Safety.” He flashes the piece of paper at the other two operators in the room. Once again he quickly puts it back in his pocket. “What is the nature of the station?”

“A solar storm is hitting us. We accounted for it in time for the celebrations today but somehow the storm grew stronger and the grade of the deflectors were…. Altered. “

“Altered how?” The Doctor asks.

“It’s like they were downgraded, but that is impossible.” The operators were at a loss and couldn’t figure out what was happening.

The Doctor takes out his sonic screwdriver and starts using it on the control panel. “Someone is purposely debilitating the deflectors.” A look of anger grows on the Doctors’ face.

“Warning, east wing compromised.” The next message to sound in the room frightens Ivan.

“Don’t worry. I got this.” The Doctor turns to Ivan and puts his hands on his shoulders. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” He lets go.

“Where is the manual override?” The Doctor asks.

“In the generator room down below.” The operator tells him.

“Let’s go. The Doctor grabs Ivan’s hand and starts to run.”

“Is there a lot of running involved?” He asks.

“Oh yes!” The Doctor replies.

They both run out of the room into a new flight of stars. They both end up back on the floor with the carnival at a halt. Everyone inside is panicking and the shaking has grown powerful.

“Halt.” A monotone voice was heard through the crowd. “This station is now under our control.” Strange robots shaped like orbs appeared in the station.  They were flying around.

“We cannot escape!”

“They’re keeping us prisoners!”

“Let us go!”

“Someone help us”

Ivan and the Doctor heard people yell throughout the crowd. The crowd grew into a panicked frenzy and some started retaliating against the robots.

A random man throws a large glass cup at the robot, “Go to hell.”

“Hostility will not be tolerated. Goodbye” The robot zapped a guy that threw the cup. He falls on the floor unconscious.

“DO AS THEY SAY. DON’T FIGHT THEM.” The Doctor yells out to the crowd.

“The life form is wise.” The robots recognize the Doctor’s surrender.

“Alright what are you? And what do you want on this station?” The Doctor asks.

“That’s for me to know and you to not.” A strange man appears in front of the Doctor.

“So Doctor, we finally meet.” The man steps forward to the Doctor. He motions for the robots to leave him and the Doctor to themselves.

“Who are you?” The Doctor asks.

  “With due time Doctor. With due time.” He paces around the Doctor observing him. “The last of the Time Lords. The Doctor. I have heard many stories about you. How you come and go. Save the day. Such a hero way to put up a good fight. Fight fight fight.” The man taunts the Doctor. He us not amused.

“Please stop this. You can still stop this station from being hit with the solar storms.” The Doctor pleads with the stranger.

“Oh Doctor, the solar storm is the least of your worries. I would be more concerned about…” He turns his back to the Doctor and walks forward a bit looking up at the ceiling.

“About what?” Ivan asks.

“The meteor showers. Once the solar storms knock out the power, the navigations systems will be down and will head on with a collision with the shower. There, you’ll all be torn into space dust.” He turns back to look at the Doctor and Ivan.

“Warning, in coming solar flare.” The stations intercom started to play the message.

A robot appears in front of this stranger and whispers something to his hear.

“Oh it looks like it’s show time.” Goodbye Doctor. We have what we came for. “Not that you’ll live to see another day.” The man takes out a small device and teleports away.

“Warning, meteor collision eminent.” The system started to play a new message.

“It’s happening.” Ivan said in a panicked voice. He reaches out for the Doctor.

“No, it’s not.” The Doctor runs once again towards the generators. With all his might the Doctor runs towards the doors and enters the basement stairway.

  Ivan stays behind. Looking into the panicked frenzy, he decides that his day nightmare will not come to pass. “I won’t let it end like this.” He sees the window that he saw the Doctor fly out of in his day nightmare. He runs for the TARDIS.

  The Doctor arrives at the generator. He takes out his sonic screwdriver and starts to gain control of the station. First the Deflectors have to be rebooting. But the Doctor was too late. The flares hit and the system went down. “OH NO NO NO NO NO NO.” But the Doctor gets an idea. “Oh wait. Oh yes. If I can manually take power from the defense system and transfer it over to the delfector system and reboot. Then that will…” The Doctor quickly fiddles with the instruments using his screwdriver and his mind to restart the station.

  “Everyone. And life forms. Head to the astronomy dome immediately. If you want to live you will go, now!” Ivan instructed everyone to head there. And they did. The crowd bumped and panicked as the station went dead. The shaking threw everyone off their feet. The artificial gravity was failing. Everything and everyone felt incredibly lighter. “Hurry go!” Ivan starts running back towards the TARDIS. He can hear the screams of everyone as they went up the flights of stairs.

  He goes through corridor and corridor looking for the TARDIS. He was so distracted by the Doctor he didn’t pay attention to where they came from. “Oh no. What do I do?” He asks himself. Then he hears a strange humming sound. It was familiar to him. The TARDIS was calling out to him. He follows it quickly as he’s being tossed and wobbled around by the shaking of the station. He is violently thrown down a corridor at high speed. He slams into a wall and could feel the force hurt his side. “Fucking hell.” He quickly gets up and sees the TARDIS in front of him. “Oh yes!” He shows out happiness.

He opens the door and runs inside. The doors close by themselves behind him.

  “Look, I don’t know how to use you. But if you care for the Doctor you will help me. Please he’s in trouble and I need help.” Ivan talks to the TARDIS itself. Hoping that an idea will come to him he quietly waits for a response. The TARDIS makes a subtle noise and Ivan remembers the first trip the Doctor took him too. “THAT’S IT!” Ivan yells. He remembered the Doctor had made a psychic mental link with him the TARDIS. “Just got to think.” Ivan began to think about the spot the Doctor was ejected into space from his nightmare. He thought hard and tears started to fill his eyes but nothing happened. “Concentrate more.” Ivan was encouraging himself to maneuver the TARDIS.

“Finally!” The Doctor manages to restart the system.

  “He did it. Everything is back online!” The operators of the control room begin to cheer. But it was a bit too late. A meteor was heading towards them.  
“Seal the windows!” One of them shouts.

The room Ivan had evacuated was the room the stray meteor the station couldn’t escape was about to make contact with the space rock.

  The Doctor walks outside of the station room waiting to great Ivan of his success but the station shakes one last time throwing him off balance. The Doctor manages to walk back to the now emptied room that once filled the stations with festivities. A giant metal plate was coming down to cover the windows but the meteor made impact. The window shatters and the station shakes. The Doctor is being drawn into the emptiness of the space in front of him. He tries to hold on to a railing but his fingers give up and in a matter of seconds he is pulled away.

  “DOCTORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!” Ivan’s eyes fill with tears and a feeling of utter helplessness. His loud screams echoed throughout the TARDIS and it begins to move. He hears the materializing sound and feels it shaking. The TARDIS stops moving and he runs straight for the door hoping he can catch the Doctor before he is taken away from him. He opens the door and sees the Doctor being pulled out of the station and towards him. He had moved the TARDIS in the exact position the Doctor met his fate in his day nightmare.

  The Doctor is filled with many thoughts thinking this is the end of him. But he hears the TARDIS. “What, how is that?” He sees the TARDIS appear in front of him and the door opens. Ivan comes out of it reaching his hand out for him, “Doctor!!”

  The Doctor holds his breathe and readies himself to catch Ivan’s hand with his. Seconds felt like an eternity for Ivan. But his face lights up with happiness when he feels the Doctor’s hand against his. With all his might and force, he pulls the Doctor into the TARDIS and successfully catches him. They both get pushed back due to the force the Doctor was traveling in and skid across the TARDIS floor.

“Oi, that’s going to leave a mark.” The Doctor slowly gets up and brushes himself off.

“Doctor, you’re okay.” Ivan runs up to him and hugs him. The Doctor hugs him back.

“Of course. You saved me.” He pats him on the head and gives him a thankful smile. “How did you move the TARDIS? I never showed you how the TARDIS works, wellllll I didn’t think about teaching you how to either but…”

  “The psychic mental link you wired into my mind with the TARDIS. Like before, when you told me to think about a time where I was happy. Well I used it to move the TARDIS to where you were with my mind. And poof, here we are. Safe and sound.”

The Doctor doesn’t say anything he just smiles on.

“Hey is everyone at the station going to be okay?” Ivan asks him with a now worried expression on his face.

  “Oh they’re going to be fine. The only place that got hit by the meteor was where I was.” The Doctor moves over to the small TV panel just to check on the stations. “Ah, yes here look.” The Doctor moves aside so Ivan can look.

  “The deflectors are back up. The solar storms can’t mess with the navigation system anymore and now they can safely move away from the meteors. They’ll all soon leave on their ships back home safe and sound.” The Doctor smiles at Ivan reassuring him that the day is saved.

“Good.” He sighs. He is relieved that any tragic doings didn’t happen. “Who was he Doctor. That guy that wanted to kill us all.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before.” He starts to press buttons on the console and pulls on a lever. “But what ever happened today. It wasn’t a random act.”

“Well it’s over now.” Ivan smiles back to the Doctor.

The Doctor nods.

“Hey, how about the next place we go to, there’s ground and you know, no meteors waiting ot tear us up.”

The Doctor laughs, “Deal.”

* * *

 

Back at the station as the TARDIS leaves its proximity, another looming problem was on the rise.

The human boy, “Is he in the crowd?”

“Negative.” A Dalek was flying around the space station.

“Return to ship.”

“I obey. The Dalek returns to its ship.  



	6. Blast Off

  “Open the door.” The Doctor instructs Ivan as he stands at the console. Ivan does as he’s told. He’s worried what the Doctor has in store for him but at the same time he’s eager to pounce at the next stop. Ivan opens the door quickly as if he was ripping off a band aide.

 “Wow!” His eyes are filled with happiness. He was looking out into space. All he could see was gas clouds painting the backgrounds of the infinite space. He turns around and sees a star off in the distance, “Is that the Sun?” He asks the Doctor.

The Doctor shakes his head. He puts his hands in his pockets and walks up towards Ivan. “It’s called, Zenial. It’s a main sequence yellow star.”

  “Almost the same as the Sun.” Ivan carefully leaned half of his body out of the TARDIS. The Doctor placed a shield around so Ivan can breathe and still be safe from the dangers of space. He still placed his hand on his shoulder wanting to be double sure he can protect Ivan. “Yes actually. It’s a bit younger then the sun though. About 1 million years.” The Doctor looks at Ivan with such happiness. He still missed Donna but knew that she would have wanted the Doctor to help him out just like he did with her.

“Well that’s an unusual spaceship.” Ivan looks above and wonders if they’re safe.

  “What do you mean, there shouldn’t be anything in this quadrant of the Andromeda Galaxy.” The Doctor looks up and sees a Sontaran ship. Without even thinking he grabs Ivan and pulls back into the TARDIS. “We need to get out of here, now.” He runs to the console of the TARDIS and starts to navigate away. The TARDIS shakes and both Ivan and the Doctor fall over. “Whaaaaaaaa.” Ivan rolls away. The Doctor gets up quickly and looks at the screen. He sees an armada of ships flying in and another fleet of ships engaging battle with them. “War.” His eyes begin to fill with rage but is soon quelled when he looks into Ivan’s eye.

“Between who?” Ivan gets up and decides to hold onto the bars by the console so he isn’t knocked off his feet again.

“Humans. And Sontarans. They’re an alien race made of clones.”

“Clone wars.” Ivan quietly chuckles to himself.

“Well it’s none of our business so we have to get going.” Noises of warfare could be heard even from inside the TARDIS. The two fleets continued ruthless attacks towards each other.

  “But, I thought you helped people… all life beings. We’re supposed to just leave them?” Ivan was confused at the Doctor’s demeanor. He first seemed like a caring father figure and now he’s a neglectful and un empathetic.

  The Doctor sighs and turns around and grabs Ivan by both of his shoulders and looks into his eyes, “Ivan. Please don’t take this the wrong way. I do help people. Aliens. All life forms. And I want you to do the same when people need help. But what I don’t do is meddle in wars. I won’t help if the cause is just to annihilate an enemy. “Ivan sees a side of the Doctor he hasn’t seen before.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“Yes, I’m fine.” The Doctor shrugs away and looks back to the screen monitoring the situation. He puts on his glasses and looks carefully, “Oh no.” He cries out in horror.

“What?”

“The fleet the Sontaran’s are attacking, there is a few ships filled with evacuees.”

“What do you mean evacuees?” Ivan looks into the monitor.

“A nearby system similar to earth recently experienced an early, end.” The Doctor looks troubled. He takes off his glasses and starts to pace around playing with the glasses in his fingers.

“End? What do you mean by that?” Ivan’s eyes tried to keep up with the Doctor’s motion but he zig zagged across the TARDIS.

“The star that kept that system bound, it started to die just recently. But it wasn’t natural. That star still had a few billion years left to live before it turned into a Red Giant.” He stops moving and talking all together.

  “Well you said yourself that’s the natural order of life, things are born then they die and it starts all over.” The words the Doctor preached to him reached out to him. A shinning beam of hope grows inside of Ivan.

  “Well the populated planets were able to figure this out in time, so they took to the stars to find a new home. And those ships are filled with people.” His voice changed to a parental tone. Filled with concern for the welfare of the evacuees the Doctor springs into action.

“Ships filled with people, filled with young children waiting to find a new home. So, were helping them, right?”

“Oh yes.” The Doctor sets coordinates and pilots the TARDIS The TARDIS shakes.

“Shall we?” Ivan runs for the door and waits for the Doctors cue.

  “Allons-y!” The TARDIS stops shaking and the Doctor runs to meet Ivan at the door. Ivan places his right hand on the right side of the door and the Doctor places his left hand on the left side of the door. They both nod at each other and open the doors together. They exit the TARDIS and are greeted with people pointing guns at them.

“Halt! Who are you and why are you here?”

  The Doctor and Ivan find themselves inside the flag ship of the fleet. The control room is filled with pilots looking puzzled. It was cold inside the ship and sirens were going off. Security quickly came in and surrounded them.

“I’m the Doctor and this plucky young lad here is my partner, Ivan.” The Doctor and Ivan both raise their hands up.

“Hi I’m Ivan, I’m his partner. Please don’t shoot and kill us.” He looks over at the two guards pointing their guns at them. He smiles and tilts his head a bit. Part of him was being sassy and feared for his life.

“Put your guns down.” A man came through the doors and ordered the guards to leave the room.

“I’m General Srauss.”

“Hi, not repeating myself.”

“Ivan.” The Doctor turns to look at Ivan like a parent would when they’re about to lecture a child on what they did was wrong.

“I mean, Hi I’m Ivan and this is the Doctor.” Ivan re introduced him and the Doctor to the general.

“The Doctor, as in Thee Doctor? The Doctor who single handedly saved the crisis in New New York?” The General seemed to have been filled with hope upon learning the Doctor was on board.

“WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL yes. I am him. Nice to meet you.” The Doctor reaches out to shake the Generals hand. He returns the hand shake.

“So, why is this fleet being under attacked by the Sontarans?” The Doctor started to look around the control room randomly picking up papers and looking at them.

“They’re accusing us of blowing up some of  their spaceship. But that’s false. We are simply on our way to a new home. “The General starts walking and motions for Ivan and the Doctor to join him.

“How many people in the fleet all together?”

  “A few thousand.” Srauss notices children passing by running and playing. The Doctor smiles looking at the kids playing with each other. “When our planet was lost, other fleets decided to colonize in a different region of space. It was such bad luck that we ran into Sontarans on our way here.”

“At least they weren’t Daleks.” The Doctor told him.

“Oh Doctor, don’t joke like that.” Srauss grew anxious as he feared for the worst for the people of the ships he was charged with taking care of.

“Oh I’m serious. You can reason with a Sontaran, a Dalek. Forget it.” The three of them continue their walk down a corridor It’s cold and the bright lights started to give Ivan a headache.

“What’s a Sontaran look like anyways?” Ivan asked.

General Srauss took out a small tablet and showed him a clip of a Sontaran video message they had sent earlier.

“Oh, it’s like a rabid jerk faced Mr Potato head.” He starts laughing at the sight of the Sontaran on the tablet screen.

“Laugh all you want but they are a race thirsty for fighting, enjoying the thrill of war. And they just declared war on this ship filled with innocent people.” The Doctor stops. “We need to talk to them.”

“We have made contact with them several times but they recently just stopped returning our messages. They’ve only sent lasers and missiles at us.  Our defense force has been doing a good job of keeping their attacks at bay but Doctor, I don’t know how much more of this we can take. I only want to take my people to a new world. To be happy and start a new life.” A young boy runs up to Srauss and grabs him from his pants.

“Daddy.” The young boy reaches his hands up in the air wanting to be carried by his dad.

“Hey sport. Srauss picks up his son and holds on to him tight. “It’s going to be okay.” He rests his head on his son and kisses him.

  Watching Srauss embrace his son gave Ivan this happy yet sad feeling at the same time. He wished he knew the feeling of such a bond. But he knew that he needs to put his feelings aside and help the Doctor get these people to safety.

“Right. Well let’s make contact with the Sontaran.” The Doctor walks back to the control room.

“But they don’t reply to us anymore. What makes you think they will now?” Srauss put down his son and told him to find his mother. He runs away.

“Because I’m here.” The Doctor turns around and gives Srauss a confident look.

“Hey I’m going to look around if that’s okay?” Ivan asks the Doctor.

“Go. Learn what you can from these people, maybe they have a hunch as to why this is happening.” The Doctor nods to Ivan.

“You’ll need these.” Srauss gives Ivan a badge, “With this you can walk around the ship without security hassling you.” The badge had Srauss signature and had the worlds “max clearance” on it.

  The three of them part ways and Ivan starts to look around the ship. He makes his way down a hall and finds a mess hall. The hall is quite enormous. The walls were all covered in a white and silver combination.  There’s a cafeteria by the side of the hall and lots of stalls to get food from which many families are lined up waiting to get food. A giant glass wall that covered half of the room gave the diners a beautiful scene as they eat. Ivan sees so many people carefree and happy. He notices a mother about to feed her young daughter. A glee of happiness runs through his body.

* * *

 

   The sirens go off and red alarm lights dominate the room. The room begins to grow in a panic and mothers rush to grab their children while others prepare for the worse. Ivan can see smoke from outside of the ship. There are other spaceships outside.  The defense patrol ships were shot down and fall into darkness. The shaking grows and the sirens go louder and louder and all Ivan can hear is screaming. He runs to find the Doctor. The corridors felt hotter. The icy air conditioned halls that once controlled the temperatures of the ship disappeared. When Ivan reached the end of the hall, he saw a fire emerge from the other end of the hall. He runs to the other direction hoping an alternate route to find the Doctor. His face starts to get covered in his sweat and he soon finds himself finding it harder to breathe. An explosion went off and the ship shook vigorously. A ringing developed in Ivan’s hearing and his breathing became deeper and deeper. The ships oxygen levels were dropping and Ivan gasps for breath. “Doctor…” Tears fill Ivan’s eyes not wanting to die alone and wanting his only friend at his side, he crawls looking for the Doctor.

* * *

 

“Hi, I’m Risa. What’s your name?” A young woman walks up to Ivan and introduces herself to him.

“Hi, I’m Ivan. Nice to meet you.” He smiles and reaches out to shake her hand.

“Are you okay? You kinda just spaced out there.” Risa waves her hands in front of Ivan’s face thinking he must have hit his head or is sick.

“I’m fine. I’m just having a day dream.” (Or dream nightmare).

“Who is he Risa?” An elder woman came walking holding a young girls hand.

“Oh grandma this is Ivan. Ivan this is my grandma.” Risa rushes over to help her elder grandmother walk.

“Ah, nice to meet you, young man. You remind me of my son.” Risa helps her sit down at a table nearby. She also takes the young girl from her grandmother and looks out for her.

“Oh, umm thanks!” Ivan is confused by what she meant by that but took it as a complement.

“So, what’s a young man like you doing wandering alone?” the old woman asked.

 “I’m trying to figure out if anyone here would know why the Sontaran’s would accuse this fleet of attacking one of theirs. You’re just evacuees right? So what motive could you all have for it?” He begins to pace around much like the Doctor does even putting his hands in his pockets like he does.

“The order is falling.” The old woman said.

“Please grandma, not these stories again.” Risa seemed a bit annoyed by her grandmother telling these so called “stories”.

“No I want to hear this story. I grew up in foster homes and group homes so I never had anyone tell me stories like these before, could you please tell me?” Ivan asks Risa’s grandmother.

“Oh of course I would love to tell you. It brings me great joy to know someone still wants to hear from this old woman.” She looks at Ivan with such a happy smile and he does too.

  “It was said that long ago, before time existed, a man controlled the universe and created order. And he tamed the wild prowess of space itself. He was said to have the galaxies in the palms of his hands. If the universe were to ever fade into darkness again, it was said that obtaining the galaxies in their hands and with great wisdom, great courage and great strength would restore the order.” Risa’s grandmother went on with the story. Ivan was fascinated with every word of the story.

“Again grandma just another story. Sorry Ivan.” Risa seemed apologetic about her grandmother going on and on.

“No I loved the story, thank you Risa’s grandmother.” Ivan smiles. “I better get going, I need to find my friend. Thank you for the story.” Ivan says his goodbyes and starts to walk away.  


“It isn’t a story though. Our world was lost because order was falling.  Stars suddenly dying.” Risa’s grandmother was convinced the stories she was told were true.

“And I’ll just have to be the one who puts it back together then eh?” Ivan smiles and starts to walk away. “Bye Risa, Risa’s grandmother nice to meet you both.”

“Doctor, are they saying anything?” Srauss is on edge clenching his fist tightly hoping for a solution.

“I hear them. I can hear them. Calling Sontaran fleet this is the Doctor calling, put me me through your general.” The Doctor started making demands over the systems communicators.

“Doctor.” A Sontaran voice was heard through the intercom. “You have some nerve showing up like this after what you did to our comrades.”

  “You mean with the Atmos? Yeah, wellllllllll that wasn’t me. Someone else blew that Sontaran ship. Anyways, this is irrelevant to now. Leave these people alone, they’ve done nothing to you.” The Doctor raises his voice and his nostrils flare.

“That is where you are wrong, Doctor. These humans completely annihilated two of our ships declaring war upon us. There is no going back.”

  “Impossible most of these ships don’t even carry any form of weapons. The only weapons we have are the defense ships and those are used to blasts asteroids we can’t avoid.  No possible way we could have done such a thing.” Srauss was frantic. He was breathing in heavily. The fear in his body started to weaken his muscles.

“Lies. Enough of this Doctor. Let the last of the Time Lords go with this fleet.” The Sontaran general ended their transmission. Srauss slams his fist onto the controls.

Ivan walks in the room as everyone inside is shocked and terrified.

“What’s going on? This doesn’t look good.” Ivan walks in completely calm. He sees everything in a panic.

  “The Sontarans are about to blow this fleet up. All these people because they think they shot a few of their ships down. Srauss answer me honestly, did you order any form of attack on the Sontarans?” The Doctor runs up quickly to Srauss hoping to get a clue as to what to do next.

“Doctor it is the truth, I have a son here. Why would I jeopardize his safety by randomly attacking Sontaran ships?” Srauss stepped back a bit from the Doctor.

“He has a point.” Ivan gets in between the Doctor and Srauss.

“They’re going to fire!” One of the co-pilots who was monitoring the Sontaran ships alerted Srauss.

“I got an idea!” Ivan shouts and runs up to the Doctor. “Boom.” That’s all he says to the Doctor.

“Boom?” The Doctor looks at him in confusion.

“How far is the destination you were heading to?” Ivan asks Srauss.

“About that, we were actually close to getting there. “Srauss walks over to steer the ship and message the following ships behind to prepare for attack.

“It will be close but.” Ivan paces around the room.

“In coming missile.” The pilot shouted

“Fire the defenses!” Srauss let out the command.

“We need to stay put.” Ivan orders everyone.

“Why?” The Doctor asks.

“It’s a decoy missile. Chances are they’re going to hit fire at the rear end instead of us instead a head on collision.” Ivan looks into space. He is completely calm and confident.

“How do you know this?” Srauss asked him.

Ivan doesn’t say anything. He stands still firm with his decision while the rest of the ship and fleet are on high alert. The shaking startles everyone in the pilot room. The Doctor grabs Ivan and pulls him into a corner to talk privately.

“What do you think you’re doing?” The Doctor asks him.

  “Look I know this may sound crazy but they have only attacked like once or twice right? And they have been just in front of this fleet looking menacingly. They must be on their last reserves. If they are as you described them to be, we would have been blasted into space dust by now but we haven’t. And you want to know what?” Ivan raises one of his eyebrow and looks into the Doctor eyes with full confidence.

“They can’t attack us even if they wanted to.” The Doctor started to realize the Sontarans can only play a bluff. They only had their reputation as war monsters to keep the fleet at bay.

“Trust me.” Ivan runs up to Srauss and starts to give him orders.

  “The Sontarans only have one shot at taking this fleet out and after that it’s over. They miss you can continue on their path and the only thing they can do is curse at you as you fly away, to your new home. So Move the fleet over to the left the missile they will launch will miss and hit the Sontaran ship instead. When the ship goes up in smoke you make your way through quickly and leave this part of space.” The Doctor was surprised to hear Ivan talk like this. His confidence sky rocketed and was impressed with his sudden abundance of tactical defense strategy.

“Do as he says.” The Doctor seconds Ivan’s decision. He begins to input a coded message to the ships following behind.

“I trust you.” Said Srauss as he begins to give the command.

“Move the ships now!” One of the pilots started yelling.

“Not yet. If we move to quickly they will react in time. “Ivan was looking at the monitors as the sirens blared. The anxiety in the room increased. Second by second his eyes never blinked as he watched this in coming missile on the radar come through.

“NOW!” Ivan yells.

The fleet safely moves out of the way and the missile misses them. It now heads directly to the Sontaran ships ahead of them.

  The Sontarans fire a missile to blow the one coming towards them. A giant plume of smoke and fire erupts in space. The fleet takes Ivan’s advice and start to fly out. “Fly all ships now, continue on course with max speed.” Srauss changes order to the fleet. The ships stay on course and one by one the fleet manages to pass the Sontarans and into a safe distance away from them.

  “It worked. We’re safe!” The pilot starts to yell in relief and excitement. There are cheers all around and Srauss starts to give a message through the intercom. “Attention, this is General Srauss.  We’re on our way home so sit back and relax because we are coming home.” A smile grows on Srauss and Doctor nudges Ivan.

“Good job. You’re brilliant.” The Doctor praises Ivan. Ivan smiles without saying a word, he starts to walk out of the control room.

“What is that?” Srauss asked the Doctor to take a look at the radar. Something was happening to the Sontaran ships they had passed behind.

“It looks like they’re being torn apart, but by what?” Ivan asks the Doctor.

“Black hole.” He grew weary. A nearby star turned into a Black Hole in a blink of an eye.

“But that’s impossible. We were passing by stars not black holes.” Srauss looks in horror as he continues to watch the Sontaran fleet completely annihilated by the destruction of the Black Hole.

“Is… is it going to pull us on?” Srauss asks the Doctor as he feels a fear unlike he’s ever felt before. His blood felt a cold sheer force of anxiety that paralyzed him in place.

  “No, we’re fine at this distance. If we have stayed there negotiating with the Sontarans, we would have been pulled in too.” The Doctor looks back at Ivan with a look of confusion. Coincidentally Ivan’s plan to get them moving sparred them the horrible fate of destruction by black hole.

The Doctor walks out of the room calling Ivan to him Srauss walks behind them.

“Thank you Doctor and Ivan. Because of you two we can reach our new home soon and start new lives. You have my personal thanks as well.” Srauss reaches out to shake the Doctor and Ivans hand.

“Hi daddy.” Srauss son comes back to him once again motioning for him to pick him up.

He picks him up and hugs him.

“You’re welcome. Well, we will be off now.” Ivan starts to walk towards the TARDIS.

“Best of luck Srauss to you and your people.” The Doctor nods his head and walks into the TARDIS following behind Ivan. The doors shut close.

“Well then. That was quite a day, I’m going to sleep now, goodnight Doctor.” Ivan leaves the console room and walks for his bedroom.

“Ivan wait.” The Doctor rushes over to Ivan. “I have to ask; how did you know that was the best decision to make?” The Doctor is wary of Ivan. He isn’t sure if Ivan is alright or if he’s holding out on him.

  “Just luck Doctor. I’ve watched so many sci-fi movies and action shows I guess some of that stuff is true. So I figured hey why not try it out right, what else did we have to lose?” Ivan didn’t look back at the Doctor. He became quiet and stood in silence. He took a few breaths in and continued to his room.

“But the thing is, I’ve been in this part of space before. These stars are fairly young. None of them should have started dying out this early.” Ivan stops mid-way and stands at the doorway to his room.

  “Hey Doctor.” Ivan turns around and looks at the Doctor. He walks over him slowly looking him in the eye. Ivan smiles and lets out a happy sigh. The Doctor feels Ivan wrap his arms around him. The Doctor smiles and hugs him back. “Let’s leave the mind boggling mystery for another day, yeah?”

The Doctor smiles and nods. He lets go of Ivan as he watches him walk to his room.

“Goodnight Ivan.”

“Goodnight Doctor.”


	7. Gone astray

  Everything around Ivan was collapsing. The stars were fading and the ground was shaking. In front of him was a giant door. There was no wall behind it. Just a giant door decorated in a gold metallic frame. The alien planet was hostile towards Ivan. The wind started to blow picking up dust and debris in the air. It grew violently and intensified as the ground shook stronger and stronger. Ivan calls out for the Doctor, "Doctor, Doctor!!!!" His screams muffled by the wind he continues on towards the door. He sees a man standing in front of him. It was hard to see with all the dust in the wind but he manages to see a bit of him. The stranger turns around to look at him. He’s tall and robust. He neither moved nor said anything. The world around Ivan grew violent as if the cosmos were shouting in agony. Ivan steps closer towards the man as the force of the winds push against him. “Three words, Great Dark Defender.” He heard those words echo from out of nowhere. The stranger just stands there filling the air with sadness and regret. Ivan recognizes the feeling and tries to get closer but the shaking grows and grows. He looks up and sees all the stars and planets go out in a fiery blaze. It makes its way for him. In his vision, a giant wave of inferno prepares to greet his end. 

* * *

 

   “What the.” Ivan wakes up and falls out of his bed. “Damn it!” He falls on his elbow and hits his funny bone causing him to feel a weird sensation throughout his arm. The blankets were dragged down with him and cover his face. He gets up and removes the blankets from his face and races out of his room.

  When he arrives at the console room of the TARDIS, he finds the Doctor is missing. “Doctor, are you here?” He only has the TARDIS keeping him company. The silence was bothering him a bit. It reminded him of his lonely days before he met the Doctor. He’s overcome with sadness and tears up. His mind back tracks with memories of his past.

  The Doctor walks in the TARDIS unnoticed by Ivan who is lost in deep thought, “Ivan. Ivan. Are you alright? Ivan.” The Doctor gently nudges on his shoulder. He looks at Ivan with concern and starts to nudge him more. Ivan became unresponsive. “Ivan?!” The Doctor starts to grows concern. His friend isn’t responding to any stimuli.

  Ivan collapses on the ground on his back. His eyes stayed open and he was breathing slowly. The Doctor takes out his screwdriver and scans to use it all over Ivan’s body. He scans his head first and slowly scans the rest of his body from the head down. He runs over to his monitor and looks at the results of the scan. “Abnormal occurrence in temporal lobe. Neurons and synapses flow is abnormal. He’s having a seizure.” The Doctor quickly runs over to a cabinet by the console. He takes out a small box and opens it quickly. Under the presser he accidentally knocks it open and instruments fall onto the floor. Desperately searching for what he needed, he goes through the mess on the floor searching for what he needed, “Ah here we are.” The Doctor picks up a small device that looks like an outlet charger. He puts it on the screwdriver and calibers it’s setting, “Sorry Ivan, this may sting a bit.” He uses the screwdriver on Ivan’s head.

  The Doctor stands over Ivan hoping he will come to. “Please Ivan, please.” He grows scared. Kneeling down, he grabs Ivan’s hand and places his over hand on his forehead, “Wake up. Come on.” He gently slaps Ivan’s cheeks hoping he will feel the stimulation of the force from his hand. Ivan lies there motionless. His body lying on the cold ground. The Doctor feels his heart break watching his friend lie there. “Please wake up, for me?” He feels movement.

“So, I come looking for you and you push me down? Is that how it is?” Ivan pushes away the Doctor and gets up.

“IVAN, YOU’RE OKAY!” The Doctor hugs Ivan tight. In relief he didn’t realize he had attacked Ivan with his hugs of affection.

“What’s the deal? Are you alright Doctor?” Ivan not sure what was going on. He loves the warmth coming from the Doctor and hugs him back.

“Ivan, why didn’t you tell me you were epileptic?” The Doctor pulls away from Ivan looking at him in the eyes.

“Oh, is that what this is about? Well, yeah I didn’t think it was, important ya know?” Ivan starts to walk away back to his room. “I’m going to change.” The Doctor follows behind him.

  “It was important. I could have helped you earlier so this didn’t happen again. How long have you had seizures?” The Doctor sits on Ivan’s bed waiting for his reply. Ivan takes his shirt off and his bare chest is exposed. The Doctor looks away wanting to give him some privacy. “I don’t care, you can look.” Ivan starts to chuckle a bit and pulls out a clean shirt from his drawer. “And since I was little. Happens every once in a while. I don’t notice or feel it. The only way I knew it happened was when people would stare at me like a weirdo.” Ivan starts to change into a new pair of pants he recently got. He didn’t like the gadget that create instant clothes and went on a shopping spree the night before. Burning through the last of his savings.

“Well if you have some health issues, please let me know. I am a Doctor after all.” The Doctor gets off Ivan’s bed and starts to walk out of his room.

  “That’s all of it I swear. Seizures, and the occasional cold.” Ivan is lacing up his shoes. Converse were always his favorite canvas shoes. He bought 5 different pairs for his travels with the Doctor. He looks up at sees the Doctor’s face with concern. “I’m okay.”

The Doctor leaves his room.

Ivan rushes out still lacing his left shoe. “So, where were you?” He asks with energy. He’s ready for whatever is next in their adventure.

“I was out. Checking up on some things.” The Doctor didn’t look at Ivan in the eye. He kept his face hidden.

“Checking for what?” Ivan sits down on the railing.

“It’s nothing. Now then shall we get some breakfast.” The Doctor runs out the TARDIS. Ivan quickly follows him as he fixes the collar on his shirt.

They both find themselves in the center of a town. Ivan isn’t sure where they are. It looks almost like Los Angeles. But at the same time it feels foreign to him.

“Time for breakfast.” The Doctor heads off to a small diner just around the block.

“Hey Doctor, when and where are we?” Ivan feels the cool wind breeze brush up on his face. The air is fresh and the sun shines high in the sky.

  “We are in New Los Angeles. And when, wellllllllllll it’s 3020. It’s a colony planet. Humans explored the cosmos in search of a new home to go to once the Sun dies. They found an uninhabited planet similar to Earth. And so here we are.” The Doctor turns around to smile. The wind continues to blow a gentle breeze and both the Doctor and Ivan are in awe in the perfect weather.

“Ah, so then that’s not the sun.” Ivan looks up placing his left hand on his forehead as a shield from the star’s rays.

, “Nope.” The Doctor turns around and heads back towards the diner. “Another yellow star. Tau Ceti but you can call it Sun 2.” The Doctor quickly jay walks across the street not wanting to wait for the street light. Ivan copies the Doctor and jay walks as cars slow down. A few cars beep at him and he looks at them with an apologetic look on his face. He catches up to the Doctor.

“Well, Sun 2 is crossing the meridian, so that means it’s actually lunch time.” He smirks with confidence and walks up to the Doctor.

“Oh wow.” The Doctor smiles and chuckles out loud, “Bit late for breakfast ain’t it. Alright lunch it is, burgers?” The Doctor nods at Ivan and walks inside the diner.

  The diner is full and many people are inside eating. The place smells like fries and the room is fresh. There are many other food scents that travel to Ivan’s nose. His stomach starts to grumble as he passes table by table stacked with plates of delicious looking foods.

  The Doctor finds them a booth by the edge of the diner. Ivan walks over to him carefully passing through as people walk around him. He sits down and scoots over until his body meets the wall. The Doctor sits down with his hands folded and his arms crossed on the table.

  A waitress walks over to their table. She was wearing a green apron and had a ponytail. With a cheerful spirit she takes out a notepad and pen and clicks it. “Hi welcome to New LA Diner, what can I get you both started with today?”

“Two burger combos please.” The Doctor orders for both of them. Ivan nods to the waiter in agreement. He is starving and his mouth is starting to salivate.

“Alright, what would you like to drink sir?” The waitress was writing down as she talked to the Doctor.

“I’ll just have water.” He says

“Alright and your son?” She looks at Ivan.

“Oh, no no no no he’s not my dad.” Ivan starts waving no with his hands towards the waitress. He slides down from his side of the booth for a bit getting some distance from him and the Doctor.

  “Oh no he’s not my son. He’s just a friend.” The Doctor shakes his head no repeatedly and starts to look outside the window. He didn’t know what he should consider himself to Ivan. A foster parent. A brother. He knew that their relationship was growing and Ivan will consider their growing relationship stronger than just friends.

Both Ivan and the Doctor reply to the waitress at the same time. A tense awkwardness grows between them.

“My apologies.” The waitress feels bad for her assumptions.

“It’s okay I’ll just have a coke.” Ivan turns his head away from the Doctor looking only at the waitress.

“Alright, coming right up.” She finishes writing on the notepad and walks away.

“That was weird huh?” Ivan tries to laugh away the awkwardness but fails. The Doctor just looks out the window observing the world around him. He clears his throat and turns to talk to Ivan, “Yeahhhhhhhhhh.”

“So what do you plan to do next?” The Doctor folds his hands looking into Ivan’s eyes. He wonders whether Ivan truly plans on traveling with him for the rest of his life.

  “Why? Did you change your mind? Do you want me to go?” He grows nervous. Doubt grows in his mind as he ponders the Doctor’s question. The thoughts of him being on his own scared him. He only ever had one friend, the Doctor. Losing him is his worst fear.

“No, of course. I love having you around. I just thought that maybe one day you’d want to go to school.”

“I dropped out.” He cuts him off.

“Get a career.” The Doctor tilts his head with every word like a bobble head.

“Even with degrees’ people still don’t get employed.” Ivan refutes everything the Doctor tells him. He grows sarcastic and pessimistic with the thought of having a normal life.

“Maybe start your own business.”

“I’m broke.” Ivan is getting irritated and his doubts grow even more.

“Maybe start a new life…”

  “I get where you are going with this. You do want me gone so you can move on to better. Fine Doctor, I knew you really didn’t want me along. Goodbye jackass!” Ivan gets up from his seat and runs out the diner. His eyes fill with tears and he disappears into the crowd.

  People in the diner are looking at the diner. Ivan caused a commotion and the Doctor was on the spotlight. He awkwardly looks around at everyone staring at him. He panics and puts on an awkward smile trying to pretend he didn’t send a young man off in tears. The waitress comes back with their food.

“Here you are.” She carefully places the plates on the table

  “I’m sorry but I have to go.” The Doctor flashes the waitress a smile and runs after Ivan. He hits the right side of his hip on a table. The table nudges a bit knocking down the drinks that were on the table. The people of that table were upset, “Hey!”

  “Sorry, gotta run.” He makes his way to the door and looks right and left. There is no trace of Ivan anywhere. He steps to the right side a bit standing on his tip toes hoping to spot him from that height. The Doctor had no luck as the crowd blended together. Any sign of Ivan being there is gone. He begins to panic wondering what to do. The skies grew dark and thunder started to crackle from above.

  “I can’t believe him. Fuck him. Why does everyone have to be jerks. I just… wanted... whatever I don’t care anymore.” He walks through a crowd feeling betrayed by the Doctor. His heart aches after having let the Doctor in. With each step of sorrow, Ivan found himself in a dark alley. The alley way was in between a liquor store and a laundry mat. The bricks were stained with dirt and trash. He pinned his back against it and slowly drops himself on the ground. It started to rain and the wind came howling. Ivan started to cry. He places his arms on his knees and drops his head down. Feeling nothing but depression and loneliness he became paralyzed in his sorrow. The sky starts to grow dark and swallows the sunshine completely engulfing the light in its wake of darkness. Water escapes from the clouds and falls onto the earth.  He didn’t feel the rain as it poured onto him. His clothes became soaked in seconds and the thunder muted his quiet sniffles and whimpers.

  “Hey kid, you alright?” A tall guy comes into the alley walking up to Ivan. His hair is dark and has silky texture to it. It was as if his hair was silk itself. And his eyes were dark but could lighten up the room. His demeanor ignites a curiosity in Ivan.  He wipes his eyes and gets up.

“Yeah, I just ummm..”

“Don’t have to tell me. Your business is your business.” The stranger reaches out his hand to Ivan. Ivan grabs his hand. With his help, Ivan back up on his feet.

“Thanks.” A feeling of embarrassment fills Ivan. He hates showing his true nature to people. He feels it like a weakness. But this stranger is peering into his soul. Not knowing how to react, he continues small talk.

“What’s your name?” He steps closer to the stranger. He let his guard down. He was more interested why a stranger would worry about a crying person on the street.

“The name’s Ian. And you are?” Ian pulls out an umbrella from his backpack and offers it to Ivan.

  “I’m Ivan.” He takes the umbrella and opens it up. He warms up fast to this stranger. Ivan has a bad habit of being easy influenced by people he believes will be his friend. It’s his greatest weakness. Too trusting too soon. But he feels like this time it would be different.

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Ivan. Where are you off to?” Ian stands in the rain. He looks up into the sky with admiration of its darkness. Ian is intoxicated by the current state of the world.

“I don’t know. I’m just sort of drifting.” Wanting to return kindness, Ivan invites Ian to stand next to him under the umbrella with him.

“Thanks. Well I’m on my way back to the Academy.” They both start to walk out the alley and make their way on the sidewalk. They pass by many people. The weather is wild but the streets is still filled with life.

“What academy?” The wind starts to blow stronger and he holds on to the umbrella tight.

  “It’s the school I go to. Don’t you go to school?” Ian didn’t look at Ivan as they talked. He only walked with his hands in his pocket and walked in a weird manner. It was as if he was carrying something heavy but he wasn’t. He only had an empty backpack that only had an umbrella inside.

“Nah, I got kicked out of my College.” He didn’t look at Ian. He was too ashamed to talk to a college student knowing he didn’t make it.

“Why don’t you apply to my school? It’s practically a guaranteed admission.” They stop walking waiting for the red pedestrian light to turn green.

“I don’t know. I don’t even have money.” Other pedestrians end up behind him. Ivan starts to miss the Doctor.

  “You know, something tells me the head master will like you a lot. If that’s true, then it’s pretty much school for free.” The light turns green and Ian walks ahead of him. He’s exposed to the rain and his hair loses its silk appearance.

“So what is this school called?” Ivan crosses the street talking while Ian keeps two steps ahead of him.

“Arcadia.”


	8. Pseudo Arcadia

  “Have you seen this man?” The Doctor runs around the streets with his psych paper showing Ivan’s picture to every person he passes by. “Have you seen this man?” The Doctor runs up to a woman pushing a baby stroller. “Sorry I haven’t.”

  The Doctor’s pouty face grows with each no he hears from passing people. He crosses the street almost getting hit by a passing car. “Watch it. The driver of the car honked his horn and flipped the Doctor off. The Doctor quickly shoves the psych paper through the driver’s open window and accidentally falls a bit in his car

“Have you seen this man?”  The Doctor is looking straight at the drivers face.

“No. Now get out!” He starts to shake his fist at the Doctor.

  “Right.” The Doctor pulls himself out of the car and rolls down the street. The street is damp from last night’s rainfall. His trench coat gets smudged with mud from a nearby puddle. He quickly gets up and brushes himself off but failed to completely keep his coat clean. “Rubbish.” He continues his search for Ivan. The Doctor is furious at himself. “Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.” He can’t think straight with all the emotions running in his mind. The passing cars and loud noises from the crowd fluster him. The sun beating down on his face makes him sweat. Drops of sweat that could be mistaken for tears roll down his face. In a personal isolation in the middle of the city, the Doctor stands still emotionally distraught. Ivan has been missing for over a week now with no trace, the Doctor’s heart aches. It’s not his intention of leaving Ivan behind on his own.

  The lonely Doctor decides to head back to the TARDIS to think of a new plan. The Doctor walks alone. Only his deep regrets and broken heart keep him company. The sight of every person walking by with someone at their side reminds the Doctor of the big mistake he made. He walks faster trying to escape his guilt but in a futile attempt he is stopped by a young woman.

“Excuse me.” She says as she tries to move around the Doctor.

“Pardon me.” The Doctor goes right and she goes to her right.

They do this back and forth for a bit before the Doctor chuckles a bit to himself and tells her, “Go to your left.” He stands still and he watches the young lady  pass by.

  “That works. See ya mister.” She starts to walk away from the embarrassing scene. A man running through the crowd pushes through and starts knocking into people. The girl the Doctor was with was knocked down along with them. He rushes over to help her.

  “Hey get back here. You’re under arrest.” Police officers are in pursuit of the guy. Three of them zip past the Doctor. The Doctor is too busy helping the young lady get up from the ground to pay any more attention to what’s going on.

  “You alright?” He gently picks her up from her left arm. He kneels down to pick up her backpack. His psych paper falls out of his front pocket and onto the floor.

  The girl retrieves her backpack from the Doctor’s hand. “Thank you.” She notices the psych paper on the ground. “Oh mister you dropped something.” She kneels down to pick it up. She notices Ivan’s picture on it. Because the Doctor was still looking for Ivan, the psych paper remained in the image of Ivan.

“Oh Ivan. You know Ivan?” The girl hands the Doctor his psych paper back. The Doctor’s face glows with relieve that this young girl knows him.

“Yes. Yes, I do. Oh yes I do! I’ve been looking for him for a whole week. Do you know where he is?” The girl is shorter than he is so he looks directly down at her. She tip toes trying to have a direct eye contact with him, “I sure do. He’s in my class. My name is Ariadne.” She reaches out to shake his hand.

“I’m the Doctor. Now tell me what school is he at?”

  “It’s a private school not too far from here. It’s six blocks down. If you keep going straight, you’ll run into the campus back entrance. “Ariadne points towards the school while holding on to her belongings with her other hand.

“Thank you.” The Doctor begins to run towards the school. His trench coat trails behind him as it’s pushed by the wings that begin stirring up.

* * *

 

  “What’s wrong?” Ivan’s mind was completely distracted. He wasn’t able to hear his classmates talk to him. His sadness caused a temporary deafness in his ears. In his mind he feels happy to be in a new place with new friends but in his heart, he feels he made a terrible mistake. But his pride keeps him in this internal tug-o-war.

“What?” Ivan finally snapped out of his confusion. He looks over to see his friend, Donovan poking him with a pen from across his desk.

“You alright? You keep spacing out like you’re not there.” Donovan has a serious look on his face. He isn’t able to tell if he should ignore Ivan’s unusual behavior or to get the nurse. He was looking a bit pale.

  “Ah, it’s nothing. I’m just not use to being in a welcoming environment. It’s surreal ya know?” Ivan reaches into his backpack to grab a pen. He slowly unzips the front pocket of his backpack which makes a loud noise. He looks around to see which pen he wants to use. He first eyes the black pen but later notices a silver coated pen. It reminds him a lot of the Doctor’s screwdriver. He stares at it for a bit and ends up taking the black one instead. He drops his backpack on the floor and waits for the class to start.

  The classroom was small. It was filled with posters from various artist. They were just digital copies of the original but still elegant to look at. Ivan notices a painting that was filled with melting clocks. It’s appearance there gives him an eerie feeling. He turns away to look out the giant window by the middle of the classroom.  He can see a beautiful view from his seat. He was on a third story level and was able to see hills roll over the horizon. A small classroom library was in the back of the room. Many students would pick out books while they waited for the class to start.

  Ian walks into the classroom, “Alright everyone. Class is cancelled. Go on about whatever it is you do when you’re not in class.” He leaves the door open and motions for everyone to get out. The classroom fills with noises of backpacks zipping up and that noise chairs make when you push it back to get up.  One by one students leave the classroom. Ivan gets caught by the rushing crowd and waits for everyone to leave before he goes. In a fit of impatience, he turns around hoping the crowd would disappear in a blink. But his gaze is caught by the weird painting again. 

   “ _La persistencia de la memoria.”_ Ian pulls on Ivan’s backpack bringing him closer to him. “It’s Spanish for _The Persistence of Memory._ It’s an oil canvas painting created by a Spanish artist.” Ian starts to look at the painting and tilts his head to the right. “Kind of creepy in a way isn’t it?” He turns to look at Ivan in a dark manner. It was as if he was peering into his soul.

“What do you mean?” Everyone has left the classroom and Ivan was left alone with Ian.

“It is as if Time itself is burning up.” Ian starts to walk out the door turning his back at Ivan.

“Like order falling apart?” Ivan recalls the story he was told by his friend Risa’s grandmother.

“Exactly. I’ll see you later.” Ian waves at Ivan and leaves. Ivan quickly runs back to his dorm.

  During the week he’s been separate from the Doctor, he was given special admission by the headmaster and given a dormitory on campus to live in. It was a dream come true. A normal life is all he wanted and he coveted every second he was living it. There was a piece missing and he wasn’t sure what it was. He contemplates it as he walks to his dorm. The dorms were across from his current location. It would make for a lonely walk.

“Did you hear? They found him dead in a closet by the gym?”

“Nah, I heard about the guy who drowned in the pool though.”

“I hear one of the cooks who prepares the meals is a convicted serial killer.”

  The hallway was filled with gossiping students whispering to one another. The stories sounded more dramatic. Ivan grew suspicious of his surroundings. He decided to keep an eye out for any suspicious behavior. If there’s anything he learned from the Doctor, it’s how to find trouble. He makes his way back to his door and drops on his bed. He noticed the room is unchanged. His roommate hasn’t been in. “Wolfgang? You here bro?” Ivan looks in the bathroom wondering if Wolfgang was in their trying to make his hair perfect. He’s a rather vain person and cares too much about his looks. But to his surprise he wasn’t there. “Alright, I’ll just be here alone.” Ivan had a lot of work to do. He opens his backpack and shakes everything out of it. His books and notebooks fall on the bed.

  A College Algebra textbook was the first book to fall out. “I guess I’ll do math first.” He looks over at his course syllabus and reads out the problems he has to work out. “Section 4.1 numbers 1 through 57 odd. Quadratic formula. Sounds fun.” Ivan opens up his book and flips through the pages. The book has the new book smell and he liked how it smells. It was clean and untouched. He only purchased it yesterday and was glad it wasn’t ruined in his backpack. The first problem was simple. There wasn’t any problem solving it since Ivan was able to factor out common variables for a simple answer. His eyes skip ahead to look at later problems. He gets uneasy from it and starts to get sleepy. “Eh fuck it I’ll do it later.” He throws his stuff off the bed and lays down. His eyes close and his mind starts to rest. The bed is soft and his pillow are even softer. It was like sleeping on a cloud. But he had dark clouds hovering over his head. Trouble was coming and he was about to be blown in the middle of it.

* * *

 

  “This way.” Ariadne decided to walk the Doctor to the school. The Doctor runs next to her asking questions about Ivan, “Is he okay? Does he look happy? Is he in trouble?” The only thing that mattered to him was Ivan’s welfare.

“He’s fine. He kind of spaces out a lot but hey, what bored college student doesn’t do that?” She smiles and runs. The wind is blowing against their faces as their run towards the school.

“So what’s this school called anyways?” The Doctor takes in a deep breath after he asks her the question.

“Arcadia!” She yells out with such school pride.

The Doctor stops running. There is a look of horror on his face and an ominous feeling grows in his gut. “What did you say?”

Ariadne stops running and walks back towards the Doctor, “Arcadia.” Hearing it a second time only made the Doctor feel a rush of anxiety and fear.

He knew it was no coincidence that that school was named Arcadia. Something terrible was about to enfold and he needs to find Ivan. The sky begins to grow dark and rain once again washes onto the ground.

“Oh no. I didn’t bring an umbrella.” Ariadne started to use her backpack as an umbrella from the pouring rain.

* * *

 

  Ivan wakes up from his nap. He still feels a bit weak and isn’t fully able to get up. He lays on the bed with his eyes open. He yawns and realizes Wolfgang isn’t back yet. “Well then. I guess I better look for him.” Ivan gets up from his bed and walks out the door looking back at his room as if it was the last time he will see it. The hallways were deserted and no one was around. The place was eerily quiet and he got a bad feeling from it. His walk takes him to the cafeteria where he only sees a few students eating there.

“Hey anyone seen Wolfgang?” he walks up to a group of guys eating at a table by the exit. “Nah, sorry.” One of the guy tells him with his mouth full of food.

  “Actually, I thought I saw Wolfgang at the headmaster’s office a while ago. Maybe he’s still there?” Another classmate of Ivan’s sends a wave of suspicion into Ivan. His anxiety increases and he begins to operate under the idea that this place is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

“Thanks. I’ll go there now.”

  “To tell you the truth Wolfgang. I had no idea you could be a Foreseer. You have no characteristics of one and you certainly lack in the intelligence department. But you are what you are and my master will be intrigued to have finally found you.” Ian stands in front of Wolfgang who is restrained and tied up on a chair against his will.

“Just let me go!” Wolfgang desperately tries to force his way out of the chains and break free. But his attempts are futile and Wolfgang begins to grow helpless. He’s scared and just wanted to leave for home.

“Sorry Wolfgang. But I sort of need you. Well not me but...”

  “Hey, I heard you found him.” Another man walked into the room. “I came as soon as I heard over the channel. So this is him eh?” The man starts touching Wolfgang’s face with his right hand inspecting him like some animal in a cage.

  “Yup. We found the temporal distortions in his room. Lots of background radiation was detected there too. No doubt in my mind he’s the one who can lead us to the Galaxy Prisms.”  Ian started to give Wolfgang a devious grin. His true nature was about to be exposed.

  There was knocking on the door. It opened on its own. “Headmaster sorry to barge in on you like this but have you……….” Ivan sees Wolfgang tied up in the chair surrounded by Ian and the other stranger. His body freezes and the entire room was filled with danger. He walked into a very bad situation and time was about to become his enemy.

“ITS YOU!” Ivan points out to the stranger standing next to Ian. The guy is surprised to have seen him.

“Oh my, what a small world. You were there on the Orbital. Funny how that thing was supposed to go out in a bang but it didn’t.”

  “Ian get away from him he’s dangerous!” Ivan runs up to Wolfgang and tries to break the chains free. “I’ll get you out.” He told Wolfgang as his hands were being hurt by the hard density of the chains. The chains were cold and didn’t budge at all. All Ivan could do was helpless tug at it hoping it would somehow free Wolfgang.

“Oh Ivan, I know. After all that’s exactly why he’s my partner.” Ian walks over to the door and locks it. The sound of it locking sounded like an explosion in Ivan’s hears.

  “The name is Waylon. Nice to meet you.” Waylon, the stranger that had Ivan and the Doctor at point with innocent people and aliens back at the Orbit is now once again standing in front of him. Waylon takes out a magnum 22 and has it pointed at Ivan.

  “Sorry Ivan, nothing personal okay. Just can’t have you getting in our way.” Ian started to give him a false apology. There were no feelings of regret or sympathy. These were two dangerous people and Ivan had no way of getting out with Wolfgang safely.

“What are you guys doing?” Ivan gives up trying to break the chains on Wolfgang and puts both his hands in the air. He slowly retreats to the back staring at Waylon in his dark eyes.

“Really? You want to know?”

  “Yeah, I figure you’re going to kill me anyways so why not just tell me. Your typical cliché bad guy speech.” Ivan needed to buy as much time to think of a way out. If the Doctor can find a way out of a sticky situation, then he can too.

  “I guess I can tell you.  Not like it would do you any good.” Waylon starts to pace around the tied up Wolfgang. Wolfgang has an angry expression on his face. He struggles in his chair trying to escape. The chains seem to tighten with each force of struggle his body lets out. Wolfgang’s anger boils over and he becomes enraged. The force of his anger was still not enough to break the chains and he looks over to Ian and Waylon. “listen here you little sh..”

  Waylon shut him up with some weird telepathic thing. “Shush now. I am talking.” He puts his finger on his lip and taps on Wolfgang’s right cheek twice. “That’s better. Anyways, we work for someone very important. We are on a quest to look for... “Waylon stops a bit to think of how to describe his goal to Ivan. “Aww shoot, Ian what would you call what we’re doing?” He looks over to Ian hoping he can give a better explanation to Ivan. Waylon isn’t the creative type of person. He’s more of the muscle type and doesn’t like associating with people that much. Wolfgang’s voice has become muffled as if he is gagged.  Still squirming to escape, he falls over on his chair landing on his right side. Ian walks over to pick up Wolfgang and places him back up.

  “Treasure hunting. Except instead of selling this treasure, we are keeping it.  It’s the key to unlocking the Universe.”  Ian stares at Ivan with hate. Ivan could see into this soulless person. They were brown but the only thing he could see was the depths of darkness.  He fears for his life but he can only think of Wolfgang rather than himself.

“Let Wolfgang go.”

  “Can’t do that. Now any last words?” Waylon readies the trigger on his gun. A look of utter joy is on his face. Ivan felt the darkness in this person’s heart. He started to think of this was the Great Dark Defender he was soon to encounter. It felt different to him. He felt sorrow for the man in his vision. Ivan feels nothing but hate and disgust for Waylon.

  Ivan’s head starts to develop a humming sound. His ears begin to flare up in pain and his head starts to hurt. It’s as if a drum was beating in the inside of his skull. The pain smashing against his forehead he grabs onto his head with his hands, “My head hurts.” Ivan yells out in pain. “IT HURTS WHATS HAPPENING.” He hears a weird humming sound similar to the screwdrivers. It grows and grows inside his mind. He falls on the ground holding onto his head.  

“What the hell?” Ian yells out in shock. He didn’t care enough about Ivan to check what was wrong with him.

“Oh look he dropped dead on his own. Damn, well at least I don’t have to clean this up. Let’s take Wolfgang and go.”

  “Calling it in. Ready the ship.” Waylon speaks into an intercom he had in his ear. They both get ready to make their escape. Ian grabs Wolfgang and drags him across the room as they make for the door. The room started to shake.  The paintings on the wall fall and a vase falls over from a stand by the corner of the desk. The pens and pencils there were on the headmasters desk start to roll off and sounds of the glass windows creaking filled the room. Ian and Waylon heard screams coming from the hallways. “You didn’t set off anything did you?” Ian asked Waylon. He didn’t know Waylon was on Arcadia until he had Wolfgang under his arrest.

  “Nah. It’s not me” Waylon looked out the window to see if there was anything unusual outside. He noticed the dark clouds that have covered the sky. The room shakes more and more. The smell of smoke started to fill in the room and the doors came in flying in an explosion. The fire alarms went off and people can be heard screaming continued.

“WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?!”

  Daleks started to fill in the room. The eerie machines of death surrounded all four of the guys in the room. Neither Waylon or Ian seemed frightened by them. Wolfgang was in terror as he squirms in his chair. Ivan still on the floor suffering from an intense convulsion. He is still conscious even though he’s on the floor. The machines of death pass around him forming a circle trapping Ian and Waylon.

“Daleks.” Waylon changes the aim of his gun towards the Daleks.

Five Daleks all stared at everyone with the menacing eye stocks they had. They were all gold colored and were coordinating their attacks against the school.

“Time Lord activity detected.” One of the Daleks started to speak. It rolls over to Waylon. The sound of it

  “Surrender the Galaxy Prism and the Time Lord.” The Daleks started to give orders to Waylon and Ian. Both of them weren’t scared by the Daleks. They found their demands hilarious and started to laugh at their cold metallic faces.

“How about no?” Waylon smirks and laughs at the Dalek in the middle. The Dalek moves closer to him.

“Where is the Time Lord? Answer!” The Daleks behind the leader started to repeat it.

“Tell us!”

“Tell us!”

“Why would we give our bosses position away? He has no..”

The room started to shake even more. The glass shatters and the roof is ripped off from its place on the building. A giant portal appears in between Ian and Waylon.

  “Thanks for that guys. But I’ll take it from here.” Another strange man appears out of the portal. He’s tall and has different colored eyes, one blue and one grey. His hair is black but with a grey streak in his bangs. The room started to make an odd sound as he approaches closer into the room.”

  “Master Eoin.” Ian and Waylon both kneel down and acknowledge the presence of their leader. Eoin stands firm against the Daleks. His hands are behind his back and he has a confident look on his face. Eoin doesn’t see 5 Daleks as a threat. In fact, he feels offended there weren’t any more of them.

  “What’s this, 5 Daleks and only a few ships hovering around here. What’s that a total of a few hundred Daleks? I’m hurt. I expected more from you lot.” Eoin places his right hand over his heart and mocks the Daleks. “What do you want?”

“Give us the Prism. We know Time Lord treachery is at play.” The head Dalek points it gunner at Eoin. “You have no choice.”

“No choice you say? Oh Ian, Waylon, this Dalek thinks it can out best me.” An arrogant cocky attitude flows out of Eoin. He raises his eye brow and chuckles sinisterly. “Nah, I don’t think I will.”  


“Then you will be Ex-ter-mi-na-ted.” The Daleks were about ready to fire. The room starts to mimic the sound of the TARIDS. Ivan finally snaps out of his convulsion and gets up quickly on his feet.

  “Let Wolfgang go. Last warning.” Ivan summons the strength to keep his body up straight. He still hunches over a bit taking in deep breathes. The room continues to shake and his heart beat matches the pace of the shaking.

  “Like I told the tin cans, nah.” Waylon lost his patience and starts shooting at Ivan. Without any fear, Ivan stood strong and prepared for the incoming strike. But the bullets froze in midair not striking him or anyone else.

“What in the...” Eoin isn’t able to grasp what he’s looking at.

“What?” Ivan is shocked to see the bullets don’t move. They stood frozen midair.

“EXTERMINATE!” The Daleks return fire and aim for Ivan. The energy beams repeated after the bullets and remained in midair. It didn’t strike Ivan either.

“Emergency, temporal distortion detected!” The Daleks started to shout out at each other.

“That’s impossible.” Eoin walks over to the bullets and touches it. It doesn’t move. It’s as if the space around it didn’t exists and was trapped in an invisible space of void.

“Hey, look at the Daleks.” Ian watches as the Daleks start to turn to dust.

  “What is happening? Explain!? Explain?!” The Daleks start shouting out together. The Daleks were disintegrating into nothing. “AAAAAAAAAAAHH HELP ME. HELP MEE” They each shouted in agony. The Daleks could no longer hold an offense against them. They were spinning in a circle trying to regain control. But it was futile, the Daleks started to completely vanish into thin air.  Everything around them was also starting to disappear. The walls started to fade first then the clock in the room starts to spin fast.  It moves faster and faster with no sign of slowing down. It makes double speed and the clock begins to shake on its own. The clock then stopped at 12 and fell down from the wall breaking it’s glass casing and fell by Ivan.

“What the hell is going on here? Eoin what’s the deal?” Waylon walks over to Eoin hoping to get answers for the unusual activity in the room.

“Time and Space. It’s disproportional to each other here. It’s causing a ripple effect.”

  The chains on Wolfgang started to turn to weaken. Ivan took this chance to help him escape. With all his force Ivan starts pulling at the chains again and Wolfgang sticks out his chest adding onto the pressure on the chains.

  “Stop right there.” Waylon lunges out at Ivan. Ivan swings his right fist with a great force. He can feel Waylon’s jaw as the force between his fist and his face meet. Waylon is thrown off his feet and lands on his back. Ian continues to look at the Daleks disappearing. Eoin walks towards Ivan. He has an angry look on his face and uses telepathy to bring him close to him.

  “Well now. Aren’t you something special. You saw all of this happen before it started didn’t you?” Eoin has his hands on Ivan’s chin. He stares into his eyes and looks into his soul. “A foreseer. Your mind was somehow able to wonder into the Time Vortex and survive. That’s probably how you ended up escaping Waylon’s… previous task.” He holds his grip on Ivan harder and angry grows on his face.

  While Ivan was on the floor having his convulsion, his mind had revealed to him of the future events that were about to unfold. His mind was in the future but his body remained in the present waiting for the right time. Ivan nods.

“I did.”

“Then what is it? What happens next boy.”

  “HE FUCKING DIES IS WHAT HAPPENS.” Waylon gets back up and his eyes filled with fire and rage prepares to strike against Ivan.

  “Duck.” Ivan throws himself onto Wolfgang and the chains became dust as they hit the ground. Wolfgang was set free and Ivan shelters Wolfgang’s body. Ivan leans over to his ear to whisper to him, “Stay down. Trust me, he’s the Doctor.”

  The room becomes blown up in fire. Ian, Waylon and Eoin are all sent flying towards the back of the room. All three of them hit their backs against the walls. The telepathic mute ailment Wolfgang suffered from was dispelled. “Thanks Ivan. Let’s get out of here!” Wolfgang gets up and reaches out to help Ivan get up who is still on the floor.

  “Don’t move Wolfgang. Stay where you are.” Ivan sticks his hand out like a stop sign. He watches over to see if his enemies had gotten back up on their feet. Ian and Waylon were knocked out but Eoin starts to regain his conscious quickly.

  The room itself starts to disintegrate. It’s structure collapses and its physical matter weakens. The structure continues to fall apart and the left wall falls over and collapses on the ground below. The floor below Ivan and Wolfgang starts to disappear too. Giant holes appear faster than a blink of an eye. The floor swallows Eoin, Ian and Waylon and they fall onto the ground below. The only Dalek left still fading into dust falls down with them.

“What are we waiting for?!” Wolfgang is freaking out and looks as if he is about to cry.

“Okay Wolfgang let’s get out of here.” Ivan and Wolfgang both make for the door. They escape the room and make their way to the hallways. Everything around them starts to turn into disappear.

  “Ivan, what’s going on?” Wolfgang completely shocked by the chaotic environment turns over to look at Ivan in the face. His face drowned in fear and his body shaking in adrenaline can’t stand still. He struggles trying to holding on to Ivan.

  “This place it’s like it’s being, un-created acting as if none of this existed in the first place.” To his horror Ivan watches as everywhere around him disappears slowly. “Come on we have to get out of here.” Ivan holds on to Wolfgang and carries him over to a staircase. Wolfgang is limping due to the excessive force exerted by the chains he was held captive in. his body aches and his side is sore from the fall. He holds on tight to Ivan and tries to move his legs so Ivan can move more quickly. “Come on.” They reach the staircase and start to fast walk down. The screams of the frightened people got louder and louder as they took a step down.

“Second floor.” Ivan didn’t look back at the chaos behind him. His only concern was Wolfgang. He holds on tighter to him as Wolfgang grows weaker.

“Just leave me here, Ivan. Go!” Wolfgang starts to let go of his grip on Ivan.

  “No Wolfgang, I’m not leaving without you. Look we can make it just one more level stay with me, okay?” He holds on to Wolfgang tighter since he let go of his hold. He summons the courage and strength within his own body and continues on. People are flooding the stairs in horror. The building continues to disappear as more walls fall over and the floor continues to leave gaping holes at every level.  Everyone was living a real life horror film.

  “Finally.” Ivan manages to get Wolfgang out of the administrative building. Only the building was disappearing, nothing around it was affected by it.  They make it to the middle of a lawn field were they stop for relieve.  The grass feels soft as they both fall onto it gasping for breath. The sky becomes filled with the lights of the Dalek spaceship. The sounds of the ship buzzing became loud and everyone outside looked up at the sky to see them. Dozens and dozens of ship roamed around the campus in a circular fashion.  The lights beamed down all around like a police helicopter with a search light.

“Emergency. Emergency. Temporal distortion detected. All units retreat. All units retreat.” One of the Dalek spaceships that moved to the center stood out from the rest. It declared itself the flag ship as it instructed the Daleks on their orders. A hovering sound was heard from the side entrance of the campus. Dozens of Daleks were flying back to the ships as they took the orders to retreat. People continued to run in terror at the sight of them.

  “Daleks, run!” Instructors gathered together to evacuate the students that were still in the area. One by one the teachers formed a guide post to serve as the students calmly but quickly evacuated. Ivan and Wolfgang remained on the grass watching the real life horror film unfold.

  A deep monotone voice started talking from the flag ship, “Time Lord, this is far from over. We will be back.” The ships all started to fly off into deep space one by one. The flag ship remained above where the administration building once stood. The sounds of a TARDIS materialization broke through the Dalek’s ships hovering noise. At first, Ivan thought it was the Doctor. He was relieved he had been found by him but his face of happiness disappeared and fear grew in its place. The sounds revealed that part of the office was actually a TARDIS in its chameleon circuit. Unlike the Doctors, it looks like an elegant entrance to an office. It had golden plating around the mahogany wood that decorated the exterior. Its design started to change into a chromatic look. The TARDIS changed into a silver cylinder shape with no distinction of creativity. The doors open and out comes Eoin from inside.

“I know. I’ll see you at the end, Daleks.” He looks up to the sky in anger. The Daleks had foiled their plan. Still not knowing what Eoin wanted with Wolfgang, Ivan stands in front of him blocking Eoin from looking at him.

  “And you. Who would have thought. There is something quite odd about you, Ivan. I didn’t see it at first but you carry background radiation. Initially, Ian must have thought it came from Wolfgang, an understandable mistake. But you were the one we were looking for all this time.” Eoin doesn’t approach Ivan. Instead he walks back to the door entry of his TARDIS.

“How can you be the last Time Lord? The Doctor is the last known Time Lord.” Ivan walks closer to Eoin facing danger. He was scared but at the same time he needed answers. With everything that happened today and all the lives Eoin put at risk, Ivan wanted to get to the bottom of things.

  “The Doctor? What is this, another Time Lord lives? And as to how I am still here. I wasn’t on Gallifrey when it was destroyed. Leave it at that. I’ll see you again, Ivan.” Eoin walks into the TARDIS. He can see Ian and Waylon unconscious inside of the TARDIS. Eoin must have taken them inside the TARDIS before the building was erased from existence.  The door shuts behind him and the TARDIS starts to materialize away. The last Dalek ship takes its leave as Eoin’s last words echoed over to it. The dark clouds above begin to part and a ray of sunlight baths Ivan’s face. A gentle breeze blows across Ivan’s face. With the chaotic environment over, he finds serenity in this small sign of peace natural gifted him.

“Wolfgang are you okay?” Ivan turns around to check up on his friend.

“Yeah. I’ll be okay. But I think I want ot change schools.” Wolfgang gets up and starts to laugh a bit to himself. “You seemed so calm in this. How?”

  “Oh no Wolfgang. I was scared to death. But it’s not the first time I’ve been in… Odd situations.” He continues to look at an empty lot on campus. His mind is clustered with questions and fears for the future. If things are started to disappear, what’s to stop the very fabric of existence from disappearing. These questions linger in his mind and will haunt him.

“Ivan!” A girl was running towards Ivan. It was Ariadne alongside the Doctor.

“Ariadne. You should probably find a new school.” Ivan starts to laugh with Wolfgang. She smiles and laughs back at him.

  “Oh yeah, I saw the Dalek ships. You would think normal people would run away from them but nah. I go on out to save you.” She smiles over to Ivan. The Doctor stands behind Ariadne in an awkward stance. He is still feeling guilty about his fight with Ivan. He had no idea of how to approach him. The Doctor runs left hand in his hair and tries to think of a way to initiate a conversation with him.

  Ivan looks over to the Doctor and can tell he wants to talk to him. He looks back over to Ariadne and smiles, “Well Ariadne, thanks for the almost rescue. But how about next time we go somewhere where we don’t end up needing rescue.” He walks over to Ariadne and hugs her. She whispers into his ear and says, “Forgive him.” She then lets go and runs over to Wolfgang.

“Wolfgang are you alright?” She places her hand on Wolfgang’s and looks into his eyes.

  “Yeah, I will be, thanks. Hey can you help me to the nurse office. I still can’t really walk. I got held up by chains you know. By bad guys.” Wolfgang was telling Ariadne the story of his ordeal. Ariadne listened to every word he spoke. Interested with the story, she helps him walk over as the teachers still went around looking for students needing help.

“Tell me more.” She said. Their conversation disappeared into the wind and Ivan was left alone with the Doctor.

“Doctor.” Ivan turns his head away as he talks to him.

“Ivan.” The doctor looks down at the ground. He didn’t make eye contact with Ivan. He feels horrible about how he previously treated Ivan.

“I’M SORRY.” Ivan runs over to the Doctor and hugs him. The Doctor holds him tight in his arms and hugs him back.

“I’m sorry too.” The Doctor can feel Ivan’s tears drip down on his hands. “I wish I could have gotten here sooner.” The Doctor looks around to see if anything was left from the incident.

  “No one was hurt, badly.” Ivan turned back to see if he could still see Ariadne and Wolfgang. But they were gone. They must have reached the nurse office by now. “But I do feel traumatized a bit.” He hugs the Doctor again and remains silent. His heart was beating fast and his adrenaline still rushes in his blood. The Doctor could feel his heartbeat.

“We should talk.” The Doctor legs go of Ivan and starts to walk. Ivan follows behind him not knowing what is in store for them next.

“Wait, I want to say goodbye to Ariadne and Wolfgang first.”

“Does that mean; you want to stay with me?” The Doctor looks at him with puppy dog eyes. Ivan can see the loneness in his eyes and smiles at him.

“Yes. If you’ll still have me.” He shrugs and looks at the sky. He can feel the mushy feelings deep inside intertwining with the Doctor’s.

“I’d love it.” He said with a smile. They both walk off to the nurse’s office to find Ariadne and Wolfgang.

“Hey guys.” Ivan walks into the lobby of the medical building where the nurse’s office was located. He waves over to Ariadne and a tired out Wolfgang laying down on a gurney.

“Hi again.” Ariadne runs over to wave back at Ivan.

“Hey…” Wolfgang doesn’t get up from the gurney. He only quietly speaks to Ivan from the comfort of the gurney.

“Listen guys. I came to say goodbye. I’m leaving Arcadia.”

  “It’s okay. We are too. The school is closing down and were all being sent home.” Ariadne pulls out her phone and looks at a system message from the school. She shows it to Ivan who picks up the phone from her hand and reads the message himself.

  “The headmaster gone missing.” He reads out loud to himself. “Well I just wanted to thank you guys, you know. For being my friend and stuff..” Ivan got shy and started blushing. He wasn’t use to being around such kind people.

Ariadne walks over ot hug him again, “You’re welcome.”

“I love you bro. Fist pump.” Wolfgang sticks his first out waiting for Ivan to return a bumpb. He still looked up at the ceiling never turning his head to look at Ivan.

“So you’re off with your dad?” Ariadne looks over to the Doctor.

  “I’m not his dad. I’m his legal guardian. I look after him and he looks after me.” The Doctor looks down at Ivan and smiles. They can feel the warmth between the two of them again. As if their fight didn’t happen.

“I’m going to miss you.”

“Me too bro.”

Ivan was happy to see that people actually cared for him.

“Give me your cellphones.” The Doctor reaches out his hand waiting for Ariadne and Wolfgang to take out their phones.

“Okay..” Ariadne hands over her cellphone. Wolfgang does the same. He finally turns his head to look at the Doctor and Ivan.

  The Doctor takes out his sonic screwdriver from his coat and uses it on the cellphones. “There now if there is any more trouble you call us and we’ll be there.” The Doctor returns the phones to them. The sonic screwdriver put the TARDIS number on their phones automatically.

“We will.”

“Well then, we’ll be off then.” The Doctor nods and walks away.

“See you guys.” Ivan waves and runs to the Doctors side.

Ariadne and Wolfgang both wave goodbye at Ivan and the Doctor as they walk away.

“We have to talk Doctor.” Ivan looks at the Doctor as they walk back to the TARDIS.

“I’m sorry I ran off Doctor.” Ivan leans himself against the wall. He looks the other way feeling as if he had betrayed the Doctor.

“No, I’m sorry Ivan. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” The Doctor was on the console adjusting its settings for their next departure.

“It’s okay. I should have talked to you instead of running off. That’s never the answer.” He finally looks over to the Doctor.

  “Ivan. What I said to you back at the diner… It’s just that.” The Doctor looks sad. Ivan could see his heart break in front of him. The sadness and regret escapes from the Doctor and Ivan starts to feel sad. “I’m a Time Lord, Ivan. I won’t age for centuries and even when I do I will just end up regenerating. And you, you’ll age quick. You’ll turn to dust in front of my eyes. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I could handle it watching you die. Everything has its time Ivan, but yours is too quick for mine. And I’ll have so many memories of us together that with each day that passes by that you aren’t there. Well…. My hearts can’t handle that kind of pain.” He continues to work on the console as his voice became soft. He was choking on his own tears biting onto his knuckles.

  “Better a broken heart than no heart at all. But I get it. You know I can start over somewhere if it is too much for you. Just don’t leave me with Jed please.” Ivan walks over to the Doctor and smiles at him. His heart is filled with glee and he’s come to a better understanding with the Doctor. He feels the genuine connection with him and feels safe.

  “I was wrong though. I really am sorry Ivan.” The Doctor hugs Ivan and pats his hand on his back. When he lets go, he pets his head and messes up Ivan’s hair. “Hey!” He shouts. Ivan runs over to mess with the Doctor’s hair as petty revenge.

“Oi Oi watch it that takes a lot of time to style.” The Doctor fights off Ivan’s hand with his and tries to mess his hair up again.

“You’re in a time machine. You have all the time to do your hair.”

“Hey, you hungry? Cuz I don’t know about you but I’m starving.” The Doctor puts his hand on a lever and waits for Ivan to respond before doing anything else.

“Yup. Doesn’t matter how fancy a school is, the food will always suck.”

  “Then let’s go get dinner. Allons-Y!” The Doctor pulls down the lever and the TARDIS starts to shake and make its usual noise. The Doctor and Ivan continue on in their time and space adventures with a newly cemented friendship.


	9. The legends and stories

“We need to talk.” Ivan was at the TARDIS console trying to figure out how to explain to the doctor what had happened to him at Arcadia

“Alright.” The Doctor joins him at the TARDIS and starts to pilot to their next destination. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Think we can get something to eat first? I’m starving.” Ivan puts his hand on his abdomen feeling completely famished. He hasn’t eaten in a while since his escapade back at his old school of horror, Arcadia.

“Sure, I know the perfect place!” The Doctor pulls on a lever and the TARDIS shakes. Ivan is use to the motion of the TARDIS and happily bobs back and forth as he is taken by the thrill of the travel.

  The TARDIS stops and Ivan quickly runs for the door, “Alright so our next stop is...” He pushes through the door and sees a bustling street filled with people. He notices a harbor and large skyscrapers piercing up towards the sky. The sky is blue and the sun beats down a happy ray of sunshine onto the ground. A cool breeze blows in Ivan’s hair and he walks out the TARDIS.

“New York!” The Doctor walks up behind him with his hands in his pocket. The Doctor decided to wear a matching blue suit. He fixes his tie and says, “Ah, New York!”

“New New York? That place Captain Srauss said you saved?” Ivan stands still taking in the view.

  “Nope. Just New York. Actually, we’re back in your original time.” The Doctor starts to walk towards a street. “Well then, come on I thought you were starving.” The street was littered with cars all stuck in traffic. The smell of gas fumes filled the air and people on the sidewalk all shouted out for a taxi at once. Ivan is use to this having use to live in the heart of Los Angeles. “Come on then, food awaits.” The Doctor turns around to direct a distract Ivan back under his radar.

  “Coming!” He runs up and catches up with the Doctor. His mind is still distracted with the events at his school. Ivan can tell the troubles have only begun and he has to get to the bottom of things. His powers of psyche are something he’s coming to terms with. An unsettling force which many would call a gift, he considers this a curse and fears for the future.  His wondering mind follows the sounds of the Doctor’s footsteps but he never looks up as he walks. His mind continues to torture him with thoughts and he can’t shake off this unnerving feeling in his gut.

“Here we are, Girasoli.” The Doctor managed to guide the distracted Ivan to an Italian restaurant.

Ivan finally looks up and a look of happiness is splattered on his face, “Italian?! Oh wow how did you know Italian is my favorite?” Ivan runs into the place leaving the Doctor behind.

“Aye, wait for me.” He runs in after him. The place is filled with many people dining. The smell of pasta fills the Doctor and Ivan’s nose.

  “Hey over here!” Ivan found a table for him and the Doctor at the back. He waves at him from across the room. The Doctor smiles and walks over to him. They both sit down at the table and the Doctor grabs a menu from the edge of the table.

“Alright let’s have a look shall we.” The Doctor begins to look at the menu. He notices the various pasta names.

  “Hi welcome to Girasoli, what can I get you started with?” A waiter came up with a pen and notebook in his hand. The notebook had a black leather cover on it. It had a gold oriented decoration on the borders. Ivan instantly finds the guy attractive. He was tall with brown eyes and blonde hair.

“Oh, I’ll have the lasagna.” Ivan puts down the menu and looks up at the waiter. He made no attempts to hide his infatuation towards the waiter.

“And for your dad?” the waiter looks over at the Doctor waiting to take his order.

The Doctor looks over at Ivan with awkwardness. He was afraid they would have a repeat of the fight. The Doctor was put in a bad place and didn’t know what to say, “Uhhhh.”

“Come on Dad, there has to be something you like.” Ivan smiles and starts laughing to himself. He’s enjoying himself as the waiter is left to think the Doctor really is Ivan’s dad.

  “I”ll have the chicken parmigiana.” The Doctor puts down the menu and scratches his head. He runs his hand in his hair and covers his face with his hands. The awkwardness got to the Doctor and was trying to cover up his blush.

“Alright, and your drinks?”

“Water.”

“Coke.”

  Both the Doctor and Ivan yell out their response at the same time.

“Alright I’ll be back in a few with your drinks.” The waiter left and the Doctor was left with Ivan to ponder about their relationship.

“What? You thought I was going to run off again. Oh Doctor.” Ivan reaches out his hand to the table. He waits for the Doctor to reach out back for him.

“What’s going on?” The Doctor was confused and didn’t know what was going on.

  “I love you, Doctor. After this meal, let’s go to a hotel room. And you can take me in those skinny yet scrumptious arms and you hold on to me tight. Then you pin me up against a wall and have your dirty way with me. I’m sick. With love and the only cure is your Doctor D.” Ivan looks into the Doctor’s eyes. The Doctor is blushing red and doesn’t know what to say.

  “Oh Ivan. I don’t know what to say, I mean… I’m flattered but I don’t like you that way. I didn’t know you even swing that way.” The Doctor is in a hard place. He can’t contain all the feelings he is rushed with. His face turns red and looks to see if the waiter is coming back with the drinks.

  “I’m just messing with you, Doctor. Sorry I didn’t mean to take it that far. I just get carried away in jokes and stuff.” Ivan turns away to laugh. His face is red and has a hard time breathing. Ivan’s stomach started to hurt from all the laughter and the Doctor just has a dumbfounded look on his face.

“GOOD. JUST AS WELL. I’M NOT LOOKING FOR ANYTHING.”

“Here are your drinks.” The waiter is back and places the water in front of the Doctor. He slides over Ivan’s coke to his side.

“Thanks.” The Doctor awkwardly grabs for the glass of water and starts drinking his water rapidly. Some water goes down his air pipe and he begins to choke.

“Is he alright?” The waiter asks.

“Yeah he’s fine.” Ivan smiles and looks up at the waiter. He could tell the waiter knew what he was thinking. He didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Alright then, the food should be done soon.” He raises his eyebrows at Ivan and walks away.

“Seriously though, you play for that team?” The Doctor asks Ivan.

“Both. Yeah, why is that a problem?” Ivan looks over at the Doctor.

“Nah, just promise me you won’t fall in love with Jack.” He whispers quietly to himself.

“What?”

What?” The Doctor echoed Ivan trying to dodge a conversation about his flirtatious friend, Jack Harkness.

“No really though, that waiter is so cute. Can I use the TARDIS so after this if I ask him out and it goes wrong I can just time bail?” Ivan looks over at the Doctor with a happy look on his face.

“No.” He shakes his head and frowns at Ivan. “The TARDIS is not a toy you can use for personal game.”

“But you do it.” Ivan smirks and tilts his head to the right. He’s beating the Doctor at his own game.

  “Well, right then. So what did you want to talk about?” The Doctor’s demeanor become serious. All jokes aside, Ivan started to drift back into reality. The little games of fun and tease were distracting from his growing anxiety but it was time to face the problems at hand.

“Story of creations. All the myths and legends. Tell me about them.” Ivan starts drinking his coke. He plays around with an ice cube in his mouth. He bites into it and it breaks into pieces in his mouth.

“I’ve heard too many. So many stories. But most are the same. Some person or being came and just started everything.”

“But the big bang.” Ivan interrupted him bringing science rather than hocus pocus into the topic.

  “That’s the thing, before the universe was created, pre-universe. It was ruled by chaos and magic. Everything was unorganized. There are powers you wouldn’t think of. Beings of a higher plane of consciousness.” The Doctor grabs a napkin from the dispenser and takes out a pen from his coat pocket and starts to draw on it.

  “See here, this line. Pretend that is everything before the universe and beings lived in a different space. But slowly, matter was created from amidst the chaos of the raw pre-universe. Then order formed and BAM!” The Doctor jumps out of his seat and recreates a bang with his hands in front of Ivan. “Here we are, in N-Space. The universe we are standing in right now. WEEELLLLLLLL I wouldn’t say standing but more like drifting among. Well anyways, the universe then was really ugly. It was Rassilon who with other time lords constructed the universe into the laws that make it so today.”

Ivan continues to nod his head with each word the Doctor says.

“The Time Lords. They were the first to bring any real order to the universe. No longer ruled by chaos and magic. It’s about the one good thing Rassilon did.”

“Here you are.” The waiter returns with the food. He places the Doctors meal first and then hands Ivan his.

“Thanks.” They both say to the waiter.

“You’re welcome.” He leaves.

“Okay but what are Galaxy Prisms?” Ivan reaches over and grabs a knife and fork and starts to cut into the lasagna. It’s steaming hot but his hunger can no longer be contained. He digs in.

“What did you say?” A look of confusion grows on the Doctor’s face. It’s as if those words sounded an internal alarm in his heart.

  “Galaxy Prisms. What are they? That other Time Lord Eoin talked about it with his two creepy friends when the Daleks had them.” Ivan talks with his mouth full of lasagna. It’s burning his tongue but he’s enjoying its flavor too much to care.

  “Time Lord? There can’t be any more Time Lords. They’re all gone. My planet. It was all lost in the last great Time War. No one survived. Except me. And this other Time Lord named The Master but he’s dead now. So my statement stands, I’m the last Time Lord. There can’t be…”

“But it’s true. He said so himself.”

  “Anyone can say they’re a Time Lord. Time Lords are just Gallifrians gifted with regenerations. You can’t physically tell them apart from humans if you the two side by side.” The Doctor starts to cut into the chicken with the knife.

  “But it’s true. He had his own TARDIS and everything. I heard the noise go” Ivan does his best to mimic the TARDIS materialization noise. But everyone around him looks at him in a weird way as if he was about to have some sort of panic attack.

“What did you say his name was again?”

“Eoin.”

“Eoin…. Eoin…” The Doctor kept repeating the name to himself over and over.

“Eoin…. E O INNNNNNN. OH NO. IT COULD’NT BE.” Ivan looked at the Doctor with fear. He could tell by the look on the Doctor’s face that this meant trouble.

“Tell me, who’s Eoin.”

  “I didn’t realize it at first but you were saying it wrong. Owen. It’s E Oh EN. And he was a criminal Time Lord. He once stood by Rassilon’s side, he also helped create order and law into N-Space. But his loyalties lied elsewhere and he grew only to care for himself. He wanted to recreate N-Space for himself, basically undo what Rassilon did to his liking. But The Council caught whim of what he was doing. And they banished him forever in a neutral time- space stasis in the Time Vortex. To dwindle forever until the end of the universe.”

“But he’s out and about looking for a foreseer and the Galaxy Prisms which you still haven’t told me what they are.”

The Doctor somehow managed to finish his meal as he talked. Time just escaped them as it began to grow dark outside.

  “Galaxy prisms. Old, very old and powerful technology. Tools that could be used to change order in N-Space. Have all 8 of them in your possession and with the right mind, the universe could be remade. And foreseers, well, they’re people or other aliens whose mind is able to see the fluxes of time and space itself. Their mind is able to comprehend the time vortex which is impossible, only my people had the ability to see into the vortex. But forseers are rare, I’ve never encountered one in my life.”

  “Until now.” Ivan stares at the Doctor. He now understands what he is. And begins to wonder of his fate. “Doctor, I’m able to see the future. Well it’s more like I live it in my mind, and then I’m physically elsewhere. Doctor, am I going to be?”

The Doctor gets up and inspects Ivan. He puts his hands on his face and starts to feel his head. “Incredible.”

“Doctor, I’m scared.”

  “Don’t worry you’ll be fine. Let’s talk more in the TARDIS.” The Doctor gets up and leaves money on the table for the bill. Ivan takes out a few singles from his pocket and puts it on the table for the tip. He ends up leaving a six-dollar tip. They both walk out the place and walk back towards the TARDIS. The sun is starting to set. The sky is a mixture of blue and orange. There is a vibrant red in between the two.

  “Well then.” The Doctor opens the TARDIS doors and holds it open for Ivan. He walks in and he shuts the door behind him. The Doctor takes his place at the console. He starts to maneuver it and the TARDIS starts to materialize.

“Where are we going?” Ivan asks.

“Someplace quiet.” The Doctor holds onto the lever on the TARDIS console.

Ivan is a bit upset he’s left in the dark. But he trusts the Doctor and has faith in him. Where ever the Doctor is taking him, it’s for a good reason. The TARDIS stops moving and the Doctor looks over at him.

“Okay now we can fully talk in secrecy.”

“Where are we?”

  “We are in a region of space where there is nothing. No planets. No stars. No nothing. Zip. Just empty space. What we talk about now has to be in secrecy and no one here would be able to eavesdrop on us. Now, you’re a foreseer. That explains why the Whisps wanted you back at your apartment.”

  “The things that started the fire?” Ivan takes a seat on a mini couch the Doctor had recently gotten. He looks up to the Doctor confused and worried, “Does that mean others would want me too? I know Ian sure did. Well he thought Wolfgang was what I was but in the long run, it’s me he wants right?”

The Doctor nods, “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. With you, grabbing the Galaxy Prisms would be easy. Avoiding danger completely and being able to see into the future. Well… that in it itself is a weapon.” The Doctor pulls out a small monitor from the TARDIS console. He takes out his glasses from his coat pocket and he starts typing into the keyboard.

  “I saw the future a few times. The first time. I saw you die. Back at Orbital, I saw you get sucked into space and die. But I ended up back moments before that. That’s how I knew how to get the TARDIS in that spot.” He looks at the Doctor. In his eyes, he can see the shock of the Doctor’s mind. So much was happening at once that neither one of them could stand still.

“And then you saw the Sontarans. You saw their strategy and found a way around it.”

“Yeah.” He nods.

“And then you saw the things happen at Arcadia. All the dangers of it.” He continues to type into the keyboard.

“Well, I didn’t see the Daleks. Or Eoin. I only saw the building around me get erased. I knew where to go and not go. That’s all.”

  “The Whisps. They wanted you for a reason.” The Doctor finished typing into the keyboard and pulled the monitor in Ivan’s direction. “The Whisps are from another planet. Well obviously you must know that, sorry, anyways. Their planet was lost. It was just.. erased out of existence. Which is impossible. They might have wanted you to find them their home. “

“Erased from existence…” He mutters to himself.

“Tell me, did you ever see your apartment building go on fire before it happened?” He turns to Ivan. He inspects him closely with his eyes.

  “Nah. Well. I did see something though.” He gets up from the coach and walks over to the Doctor, “ I saw a Dalek. It fascinated me so I drew it.” Ivan walks over to his backpack to get his folders filled with his drawings.

“You mean this drawing?” The Doctor pulls out the picture of the Dalek Ivan had sketched.

“You have it?” He retrieves it from him and looks at it.

“You know. I get the feeling that the Daleks must have been watching you.”  The Doctor takes out his screwdriver and starts using it around Ivan.

“The Stars. You know how you said those were new born stars. And they just collapsed to black hole in seconds. It reminds me of what happened to the Daleks that had me cornered.”

The Doctor stops scanning Ivan and looks at him, “What do you mean by that? Like the Daleks were erased too?”

  “It was more than that. But yes they were just being erased. But also, it’s what Eoin said while we were being attacked. Their plasma beams along with Waylon’s gun shots were all just stuck in midair. He said time and space became dis-proportionally to each other. So it was just stuck in some..”

“Leftover pocket space. So nothing in it moved.” The Doctor starts scanning Ivan again.

“What are you doing?” He steps back a bit looking at the Doctor with a confused look on his face.

“Scanning.” He says as he walks back to the monitor.

“Doctor, am I going to be okay? Does seeing the future like that you know, slowly kill me?” HH walks over to the coach and drops down on it.

  “Nah, foreseers are rare. In the stuff of legends, they had an important task. A fixed point in time is what the Time Lords call it. Once that happens, foreseers lose their abilities and no more of that. It would explain why you have seizures.”

Ivan turns his face down on the coach and he lays there for a bit. The TARDIS became quiet with only the noises of the machine keeping the Doctor and Ivan company.

“We have to find those prisms. Who knows what kind of horrible things Eoin can do with them. If he’s anything like Waylon, a hell bent Time Lord is the last thing we need.”

“Agreed.” Said the Doctor. He folds his arms and walks over to Ivan. He drops down on one knee and places his hand on his head. “But I promise you, we will get through this.”

“Before you said the universe was one ruled by magic and chaos. It seems as if it’s returning to that state.” Ivan flips over on his back and looks up at the Doctor.

“We can’t let that happen. It would a mad man’s universe.”

“But it’s okay right? Because we’re going to save the universe, you and me?”

“You and me.” The Doctor smiles.


	10. The hunt is on

  “Tell me then. Are you afraid? Afraid of the dark?” A strange voice appeared out of nowhere. All around Ivan was a giant firestorm. In front of him stood a strange man. He’s seen him before somewhere. His appears looks familiar to Ivan. “Great Dark Defender. Find me.” A dark cloud starts to swarm in on Ivan. The stranger never turns his back. He only stands there as the clouds swallow him up.  Ivan stands still not running from it. It was only a vision he was seeing and he embraced whatever would happen.

  He gets up from the coach gasping for breath. His face is covered in sweat and the Doctor turns around to check up on him, “Are you alright? What happened, what did you say?” The Doctor takes out a small cloth from his pocket and pats down on Ivan’s face drying up the sweet. He helps him get up on his feet.

“Oh it’s nothing like that. Sometimes I just have this weird dream about some guy.” He takes the cloth from the Doctor and starts to dry himself.

  “What guy? Where have you meet him?” The Doctor takes out his screwdriver and starts to scan Ivan. He has the same tempered look on his face. He wasn’t too worried about Ivan’s current condition. But he still kept a close eye on him.

“I don’t know. Never met the guy. It’s probably some crazy ass dream. You know lucid dreaming influenced by outer forces.” He starts to head back to his room. “I’m going to take a shower.” He disappears in his room and shuts the door behind him.

  “Right then.” Said the Doctor. He starts to type in his keyboard and looks up at the monitor. “Another cluster just gone. This time, supernova.” The Doctor has been looking at the current state of the universe. So far he’s seen star clusters die too early. There are many planetary systems that just vanished into thin air. While there are other planets that were erased from time completely. Having no trace of their existence the Doctor suspects the new rule of Magic and Chaos is spreading faster.

  “Eoin. What game are you playing… If it was the Master then… WEEEELLLLLLLLLL I could probably figure it out but… A tempered and resolved criminal like you. You’re as dangerous as they come.” The Doctor walks around pacing back and forth trying to think of a plan. The Doctor and Ivan had planned to find the Galaxy Prisms before Eoin and Co and take them for themselves. The Doctor can guess that Eoin has one, the Prisms Orbital was storing. That is one and seven left.

  The Doctor scratches his head and puts on his glasses. He walks over to the library. It has been years since he’s wondered into there. The place remains in dust. The books have been left undisturbed. It was a shame to see such a precious library filled with many books to be left alone for such a long time. “Well then, time to get cracking.” The Doctor starts flipping through pages looking for anything on the Galaxy Prisms. It is their number one priority to find them all. The fate of the universe hanged on the balance. There was no time for messing around.

  The hot water splashes all over Ivan’s body. He stands under the shower head and steam fills up the bathroom. In idle silence he lets the hot water heat his body up. Under a hot shower was the only place Ivan could drown out his thoughts. “Is he real or just a dream.” He continues to think about the dream he’s had about him. “Great Dark Defender. Of what?” The only thing he can think of now is food. Hot showers make him hungry.

  Back at the library, the Doctor is sitting down at a desk going through books of the legends of old. Page by page, nothing of interest yields at him. Time was of the essence considering the amount of time left was unknown. Ivan steps into the library. His hair is still wet but he’s changed into a black t shirt and blue jeans. As always he favors his converse over any other shoe. “Watcha got there?” He walks up to him taking the book from the Doctor’s hand.

“Just some books I took with me from Gallifrey.”

“Funny I can’t read any of this.”

“Gallifrian. It’s untranslatable even with the TARDIS.”

“Ah well. I don’t need a translation to know what this is.” Ivan picks up a huge book. He opens it up to see its content. “A star map isn’t it?” He holds up it high so the pages of the book can roll down fully.

“Yup. You got a good eye for those kinds of things don’t you?” The Doctor takes back the book Ivan took from him. He continues reading through it.

“The stars were the only friends I had. I would look up each night wondering if there was someone else up there. You know, just waiting to be my friend.”

  “Here I am.” The Doctor smiles and puts the book down. His race is cognitively more effective than humans. Being able to read through hundreds of pages in seconds, the Doctor knew the content of the book fast. He puts the book on top of a pile of books he’s stacked up. He’s read about 40 books since Ivan’s shower.

  “Oh another star map, sweet.” He grabs the scrolls that the Doctor had on the desk. One by one he opens them up and places them next to each other. There were dozens and dozens of constellations spread out on the floor. Ivan notices something strange about the maps. When placed together, they make a pattern. “Oh fuck.”

“You know, let’s talk about your language. It’s quite rubbish.”

  “SHUT THE FUCK UP DOCTOR I’M ON TO SOMETHING.” Ivan starts to search for more maps. He finds one more on a shelf near the desk. He quickly grabs it and opens it up. He places it among the other ones he’s placed on the floor. The Doctor looks down to see what he was up to, “What are you doing?” he gets up from his desk and kneels down to him.

  “Look, Doctor. These maps, they are from different quadrants but when you put them together.” Ivan stands up and walks around the map in a counter-clock wise motion. The Doctor looks closely and notices a pattern.

“IVAN THAT’S IT YOU BRILLIANT BOY!” The Doctor follows the path with his right index finger. The maps combined create a path together shaped in a hexagon.

“Look at that spot in the left corner. Isn’t that where Orbital was?”

  The Doctor walks over to Ivan’s side to double check if that was indeed where Orbital was. “It is. So we can confirm Eoin and Co have at least one Galaxy Prism.” The Doctor takes out a pen and crosses out that spot on the map.

  “Two, if the place Arcadia was at had a Prisms too, then that makes it two in their possession.” Ivan takes the pen from the Doctor and crosses out New Los Angeles from the Map. The pen was sleek and silver. It looked brand new and Ivan coveted its possession. He secretly hid it under his sleeve and went on about his business.

“Then we follow the map to the next spot. And the next spot is…..” The Doctor is shocked to see Earth is on the map. “Of course.”

“What is it?” Ivan can tell the Doctor feels a bit stupid at the moment. The look on his face says it all.

“A Galaxy Prism was hidden on Earth. Who would think to look for such a powerful relic on a planet filled with stupid Apes.” The Doctor starts to walk out of the library.

“HEY!” Ivan glares at the Doctor feeling offended.

“Oh except you, you’re brilliant.” The Doctor smiles and casually jumps out of the doorway and disappears.

“Do you think Eoin knows this to?” Ivan neatly packs up the maps and puts them in a folder and follows behind the Doctor.

“I don’t think so. If I couldn’t see it then chances are neither can he. Time Lords lack a gut instinct. An intuition. You don’t so that’s why you were able to see this.” The Doctor starts to set the TARDIS console to take them to Earth.

“That’s nice to know. An ape outed a supposed galactic super genius.” He started to mock the Doctor. A big smirking smile was on Ivan’s face.

“Ivan, that’s just being rude. But the chase is on. Allons-y.” The TARDIS does its usual shaking and the place fills with the noise.

“You and me.”

“Time and Space.” The Doctor says.

The Doctor and Ivan begin their chase for a Galaxy Prism hidden at Earth. The race to save the universe begin.

Meanwhile, opposing forces were also at play.

“My lord, just so you know, we haven’t found a trace of him yet.” Ian talks to Eoin’s back as he stands at the TARDIS console.

  “That’s fine. Tracking Time Lords isn’t an exact simple procedure. The same stands for them. They haven’t found us either.” Eoin takes out a fog watch from his pocket and looks at it. He admires its shiny surface and looks deep into it with nostalgia and feeling. His heart hardens and a look of anger grow in his eyes.

“Also, we found a lead on a Prism. Ever heard of Raxacoricofallapatorius?”

“Yeah, a notorious family of space pirates and “business entrepreneurs” are from that planet.” Eoin puts the fog watch back in his pocket and starts to press buttons on the console.

“They might have pillaged a Prism without knowing it. The scan detected a piece of technology much older than anything on their planet.” Ian hands over a piece of paper to Eoin. Eoin takes it and starts to smile.

“Well then my Lord Doctor, the chase is on.”  


End file.
